Fave Picante Picks
So whenever I post pics of food on the blog, I’ll leave it pretty plain so you can tell what it is:
and then usually THIS will happen.
Hot sauce, cayenne pepper and/or red chili flakes – mama likes it spicy.
I have a huge jar of red pepper flakes in the car, a jar of cayenne in my gym bag for food when I’m at work and love adding a little kick to all of my meals. I was seriously bummed when I brought my favorite mac n’ cheese with spinach to work on Saturday and forgot the hot sauce.. it’s just not the same without it. I think it’s why I have such deep love for Indian, Mexican and Thai- the flavors are so bold and powerful, and you can request the spiciness level.
(Guadalajara Grill. They wear gloves to make the salsa = legit)
Here are my all-time favorite hot sauces and salsas:
6. Herdez
It’s been a favorite and a staple in my family for a long time. It’s the closest thing to homemade that you can find in a any grocery store. (Target even carries it.)
5. Pioneer Woman’s restaurant salsa
I make this often to have on hand for the week and LOVE it on chips, eggs or chicken. Salsa on chicken, wrapped in tortilla is one of my favorite snacks.
4. Trader Joe’s Salsa Especial (in the deli section by the hummus and prepared foods)
This tastes similar to, but never as good as, my Aunt Julie’s (I pronounce her name “Hoo-lie”). She makes the best salsa ever, and when I haven’t had any in a long time, this holds me off until our next family gathering when I can drown everything in salsa.
3. Texas Pete
The great thing about Texas Pete is that you can find it anywhere –I fell in love with it after picking some up at the Food Lion in Fayetteville. Funny story: when the Pilot moved to Fayetteville, I was visiting for the first time and he said we should go grab some groceries at Food Lion. I said, “Food line? That’s the grocery store?” I thought maybe you had to wait in line outside the store for your turn to go in and get food. Hilarious.
2. Cholula
LOOOOOOVE Cholula. Same as Texas Pete, most grocery stores have it. I love it because it’s spicy, but still has flavor to it. Some hot sauces (cough, Tabasco, cough) just try to burn your mouth off and don’t taste like anything.
The above picture is the jar I picked up a couple of weeks ago…
and my top choice
1. Arizona Gunslinger
We don’t have any on hand and the pic is making my mouth water.
It has the perfect amount of heat and I LOVE the flavor. All of the Good Egg restaurants carry this hot sauce and it’s the best I’ve tried so far. I just wish it were more readily available in grocery stores.
I’ll never forgot the legendary hot sauce burn of 2011. We were in Pennsylvania for the Healthy Living Summit and went to the Reading Terminal Market with Gabriela for breakfast. I ordered eggs from the same place the Pilot got his breakfast sandwich and out of the row of hot sauces, feeling brave, picked the spiciest hot sauce they had. Big mistake. I have never felt a fiery fury like that in my life- I thought my lips were going to burn off.
Do you like spicy foods/hot sauce? Any spicy misadventures to share?
I’m off to work- definitely bringing the hot sauce this time 😉
xoxo
Gina
Something to read:
5 ways to speed up your metabolism (my strategies: drink lots of water, get lots of sleep, eat whole foods and HIIT 2-3x week)
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Mmmm I loooove hotsauce! And you’re right, the ones with FLAVOR AND HEAT, not just heat and make you wanna yack.
I’m such a wussy, I can’t take much heat at all. Many of my friends have tried to help me work up my spice ‘endurance’ but no dice. I love mild salsa’s a guacs….BORING over here!
xoxo
I do love good hot sauce! Right now “That Green Sauce” from HEB is what is getting devoured. It is grab a glass of water hot, but also so very delicious! At least one and usually a combo of green peppers, onions, and red pepper flakes will appear in a meal at very regular occurrences throughout the week.
my fav hotsauce is Marie Sharp. It is AMAZINGGGGG but so hard to find in the US. I usually have to buy it online and i buy i huge box at time and finish in a matter of months. i need to order some again actually.
I heartily second Marie Sharp. Luckily in Arizona, Lee Lee’s carries it. My backup to Marie is Sriracha, or as we like to call it in our house, C_ck sauce, haha!
hahah! wow
For real!! I can’t live without Texas Pete or Tapatio. My husband gets nervous when I douse my food in the sauce because I’m nursing, so I now douse in the kitchen before I bring my plate out, and I think the baby likes her milk a little spicy anyhow.
I loooove spicy foods (fresh jalapeno, salsa with scotch bonnets, drowning my food in Louisiana), but I despise horseradish and wasabi – it’s a flavor thing, not a heat thing. Being the sushi-lover that I am, I’ve had a few spicy misadvetures with wasabi! That stuff just sneaks onto one piece of fish, and it’s all I can taste for an hour!
I usually just put in two vine ripe tomatoes, half a large jalapeno, half a Vidalia onion, and a couple handfuls of cilantro into a food processor then add lime as needed to offset the kick. It’s easy and awesome, especially if you mix it with chunky avocado… I’m all for guac, but I love the texture of chunks of avocado. 🙂 And I live in Savannah, but was born and raised in Tucson and miss Herdez sooooo much. And my Tia Josie’s salsa!
you need to get some of this stuff!!!
http://blogcritics.org/tastes/article/sriracha-a-new-cult-favorite-condiment/
I’m a spicy food addict, and this condiment seriously works magic. No matter which ethnicity you’re eating, it’ll add kick that blends perfectly with the flavors!
mmmm. Makes me excited to eat my lunch!
We also get in a bit of a panic over here when we’re out of hot sauce.
I’m surprised you show no rooster love. Sriracha is a must!
My all time favorite is Burn Baby Burn. It’s made locally, by the Black Panthers, and tastes amazing.
Last week I was at work (I work in a bar) and we were a little bit slow. One of the cooks is a hot sauce connoisseur and had recently purchased The Source Hot Sauce (7.1 Million scolville units). He cooked up eight of our chicken wings and took toothpick, dipped in his bottle of The Source and poked one of the eight wings. He’s like, Kali, I’ll give you 5 bucks if you choose the one with The Source. I felt like I was on a ledge of 75 foot drop off into a icy, white river! After a minute of badgering, I hastily chose one and shoved it in my mouth. Almost instantly, I knew I had chosen it! Dumbest Russian Roulette game I have EVER played. At least I got 5 bucks….
Our favorite is Franks Red Hot! I can usually tell if we are at a restaurant and they use it! My burning story would be when I was on chemotherapy…I would be feeling good and want to eat, occasionally, and would go for my favorite foods, some of which are spicy, and the slightest heat would burn mu mouth! I had to stop eating spicy food! I am loving it again, but still can’t do too much heat!
I’m really envious. My sensitive little belly can’t handle anything spicy at all, it’s pitiful!
My brother once put extra spicy saracha sauce on his hot dog thinking it was katsup. Bad results.
I am such a wuss. I cannot handle spicy foods. My bf on the other hand will eat food so hot it makes him cry, and he absolutely loves it!
I add jalepenos to my burgers and hot sauce to evereything! Cholula is great! I’ve been on such a salsa kick lately.
Ooh yes I love spicy food! Not wasabi, but I love spicy Indian curries and hot salsas on Mexican food. Homemade ones are the best in my books – I was shocked when I learned how much sodium is in the store-bought kinds, especially when I considered how much I use!
Cholula FTW! It goes on absolutely everything and I am crazy about it. My fiance and I like to have pepper eating contests, and it’s amazing how sometimes it’s totally fine and sometimes your mouth is about to burn right off of your face as you sob your eyes out on the floor.
I like some spice, but I’m kind of a wuss! I love Frank’s Red Hot (and have a bottle at my desk at work) but it’s not really that spicy. I’m in love with the curry dishes at our local Thai spot, but boy do they burn! Maybe I could try and ask for them on the mild side, because sometimes I just can’t handle the heat!
The hotter, the better. Period.
I can’t handle spice! At. All. Sometimes my own sweet potato fries are too spicy for me. This sucks for my boyfriend, because he loves spicy and I never make anything with any heat ever. That said, I’m a huge fan of other spices, specifically cumin and paprika and cinnamon. And I’m obsessed with fall, so nutmeg is my jam. MY JAM.
My family is made up of spice-lovers, so I grew up loving the really really hot stuff. I put Red Hot or Cholula on pretty much everything—it’s just SO GOOD.
Cholula is my favorite hot sauce. 😀
Two of my absolute favorite cuisines are Thai and Indian. I like the more aromatic, subtle spiciness present in those cuisines as opposed to foods where the spiciness overpowers (and, for me, ruins) the whole dish. I’m actually not a huge fan of Mexican food, though, and only eat it when I have a craving.
Gina have you tried Tabascos new buffalo flavor?! its AMAZING. I plan my meals around it! haha
no but that sounds fantastic!
Oh i love spicy, but not quite as much as you do 🙂
A few faves in our house: Tapatio hot sauce (the black capped one), cholula of course, and D.L. Jardine’s Authentic Salsa. YUM
I like some spice, but not on everything! My husband has been known to down entire jars of Fireball salsa in one sitting! Thanks for linking to the salsa recipe; I’ll have to give it a whirl.
Crystals hot sauce. Hands down.
Where is the yellow flower plate from? I have 2 pink ones, but need more and cannot find them.
world market, but it’s like 5 years old :/
I love hot stuff tooo!!!!!!
Got try the cholula kind–sounds yumm 😉
all these random strangers keep telling me to eat spicy food if I want to induce labor in a few weeks. they don’t realize that I’m incubating a little jalapeno. Cholula…on…EVERYTHING.
and I just made my first batch of PW’s salsa. omg – how did I ever live without this?!
right?!
Love this post!! I ALWAYS add something hot to my dishes, no meal is complete without a little kick!
I was once eating at my favourite Indian place in London, and had a lentil dish. I picked up a spoonful, and was wondering why there was a bean in my dish? Since they had beans on the menu, I didn´t care that much, and ate it anyway. Big mistake. Turns out it was a chili pepper- that hot kind that they don´t even chop, but rather simmer with the dishes for some time and then, usually, take it out. I honestly thought I was dying, I could not talk, my lips, tongue and throat were on fire, my ears were watering, I got incredibly hot, my whole mouth was swollen… within second, 4 waiters stormed to my table, armed with mild mango sauce, yoghurt, water and bread… it was horrible. Whenever I go there now, I either get a free drink or dessert 😀
Yum! I love Frank’s for the flavor, even though it’s not very spicy. One time I was out to eat and got eggs and they only had Tabasco, so I thought that it was close enough. Gah was I wrong. It was sooo nasty and tasted like I had doused my eggs in pepper.
PS-do you know what happened to Gabriela’s blog? It doesn’t seem like it’s active anymore.
i think she closed it, which makes me very sad 🙁
Thought you’d enjoy this article: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/low_concept/2012/05/the_all_kale_diet_how_i_stopped_eating_anything_else_.html
I love spicy things too, but I’ve noticed that if something is TOO spicy, it gives me instant, extreme hiccups. Does this happen to anyone else?
Also, I like to grow hot peppers in my garden because I think they are so beautiful. A couple years ago, I had 6 different varieties going, and my little boy- at 1 year old- grabbed a habanero and bit into it! That was the first traumatic experience of his life, the poor thing. (He did learn a valuable lesson though!)
OMG You like it really spicy 🙂 I would be on fire LOL
I am the same way!! I LOVE spice! I hoard those red pepper packets from pizza places all the time. So my boss and I were talking about the amazingness that is Cholula (I use it so much that the cafeteria offered to just give me a bottle for my office) and he was saying he likes a brand called Franks MORE than he does cholula, I really want to try it now!
Franks Red Hot is really good! They also make a very good Buffalo Sauce that doesn’ have *that* many ingredients, which is nice.
I lived in New Orleans for nearly a decade and hot sauce is a way of life! (People seriously sit around the breakroom chatting about various brands.) My favorite hot sauces are Louisiana Hot Sauce, Crystal, and Crystal Habanero. I’m also not a fan of Tabasco- although I like some of their varietals- the green sauce and their garlic hot sauce are tasty!
I am from the Carribean and I love spicy!! – If you can find it you NEED to try Busha Brown Pukka Sauce……seriously you need to try this! *lol* If you can’t find it I will send it to you, that’s how good it is! 🙂
i have never heard of it! off to google
Have you tried sriracha (sometimes called rooster sauce)? It’s in the Asian section at the grocery store and goes surprisingly well on everything…scrambled eggs, rice & beans, vegetables, literally everything. You’ll become addicted.
And I’m soooo glad you feel the same way I do about Cholula. So much better than Tabasco!
Oh my gosh… I LOVE sriracha!!
I put sriracha in my tuna salad! SO good. And tons of it in my pho, obviously. 🙂
i have- my roommate in college used to be obsessed!
I used to be a diehard Cholula girl (only the original, though, the others weren’t nearly as good) until I discovered Valentina. It’s not too spicy but has a great flavor = perfect for dousing foods in it. Holy yum! I highly recommend it to you 🙂
http://www.hotsauceworld.com/hsw1115.html
I love spicy, but not sodium. It’s an art finding the former without the later. So…just last week I posted about making my own spicy (and it’s very spicy) honey mustard, but sodium free. Love your roundup of products here!
I am a firm believer that anything can taste better with hot sauce. I actually kinda like some of the tabasco ones – not the original so much but the jalapeno one and the habanero one have good rounded flavors. I also like Franks. I don’t think we get quite the same choice in Europe as you do in the US, so I just appreciate all that I can find!
I will try that Gunslinger one! I love hot sauce. My fav so far is De La Viuda that I used to pick up in Mexico. http://www.alegrofoods.com/delaviudasalsa.aspx
i might have to try that! xoxo
I agree with you about regular Tabasco sauce. All burn, no flavor. But their new Chipotle flavored sauce is AMAZING. It’s not nearly as spicy, but still has a good kick to it. I basically use it as dressing lol…
I am absolutely the same way. Honestly, I want my whole face to hurt from spice! Can you order the Arizona Gunslinger online anywhere?
yep, someone said amazon has it!
I also love spicy foods. One time, I had ordered chinese. I usually get it steamed and add hot sauce as my flavoring. So this time, I decided to double dip into the hot sauces – so I used the asian hot mustard AND Sriracha (one of my favorites) – It felt as though my brain was being squeezed after I took the first bite. I’ve felt heat, but that was just painful! Needless to say, I never did that again.
I love most hot sauces; having about 5 different kinds in my pantry. Glad you reminded me about the metabolism boosters; gotta get back on track.
I was on a first date with a guy at a bar. I ordered the wings, extra hot, and the waiter warned me that most people cannot handle the extra hot sauce and I should get it on the side. I was trying to impress my date – and I basically drink a bottle of Franks every two weeks – so I ordered them with the sauce on anyway. They arrived and I could not eat them! I chocked down two wings and it was torture…my lips were swollen, my face was red, I was sweating, and I couldn’t even speak! My date was not impressed and not amused. There was no second date. Luckily I am now engaged to a man who thinks this story is hysterical.
i cant really do hot sauce…my husbands obsessed but i just hate how it burns my lips!! i like my lips..not cool hot sauce!! haha i do like siriacha (or however u spell it) though…that has good flavor!
My fiance and his brother are hot sauce addicts to the point last Christmas we went to World Market and just bought his brother a huge variety of hot sauces for Christmas. They love Siracha, my dad got them hooked on it last year and my fiance puts it on everything! I, on the other hand, am a complete wimp and can’t even handle regular wings. More power to you for your stomach of steel!
I love things spicy! I dump cayanne and red pepper flakes on everything I make. And I never measure, just dump until it looks red hahah. OH and Siracha sauce is my absolute fave. I forget that sometimes our dinner guests don’t like things as hot as my husband and I do and I’ve been known to make some of my friend’s eyes water.