 The greatest Asian-American sauce right now is having a huge shortage to the point where some people are reselling bottles for almost $120. David, could this be the beginning of the end for Hoi Fong Sriracha? Yeah, well, probably not to be honest. If it's going for $120 a bottle, it's just like, it just goes to show you how much people are fiending over it. I mean, CBS News has an article saying where did all the Sriracha go? Sauce shortage hiking prices to $70 in online markets. People are debating the reasons why. People are really getting into this, Andrew. And it's not just within the Asian community or Asian-American community. This is within non-Asians as well. No, I would say this is just general American foodie news because everybody loves Sriracha. Sriracha is a household name now, by the way. I sure like that spicy ketchup, man. Ever since I got introduced to it 10, 15 years ago, I can't get enough of it. And it is uniquely American. So anyways, guys, we're going to go through the comment section. We're going to talk about why there's a shortage and then also talk about what are some other hot sauce alternatives that you might be using. But anyways, guys, please hit that like button, check out other episodes of the Hot Pop Boys. Andrew, people are talking about this, like it's like Bruce Lee's death or something like that. You know what I mean? There's non-Asians spending their days online debating about the reasoning. Is it because of dispute with the suppliers? Is it supply chain? Is it climate change? And then people are tying it to this and that. Does that go to show you how deeply Sriracha has sort of penetrated the mindset of the young American millennial? Yeah, I would say Sriracha is the greatest Asian-American food item that is uniquely Asian-American. So there's Panda Express, which is a brand, but I would say Hoi Phong Sriracha specifically because it's made in America by an Asian immigrant. With California ingredients, right? With California, it is very Asian-American. So we should, Asian-Americans should be proud of Sriracha, for sure. Long story short, Andrew David Tran is a refugee from Vietnam. He's Chinese-Vietnamese. He came over to America. He started Hoi Phong Foods in 1980, and he sort of used local California ingredients to reinvent a local Thai sauce from a place in Thailand called Sriracha. Yeah, and you know, as a Thai person at first, I just wanted to educate everybody that Sriracha was not authentically Thai, but since it does make Sriracha sauce so popular, now we get to bring in more authentic Thai Sriracha sauce. Yeah, hey, Thai people are pretty chill. They weren't mad at him. No, I don't think they were. We simply seek to educate. No, we not mad at David Tran. Anyway, let's get into the comments section. Of course, our own takeaways, Andrew. Somebody said, hey, yeah, I've got a sealed bottle from Costco from a couple of years ago. Somebody make an offer, man. No lowballing. I know what I've got in my hand. What do you think about people paying? Somebody said I paid $50 for two bottles. Yo, that's crazy, but if you love it that much or you need it for your business because a lot of restaurants do use Hoi Phong Sriracha flavored things or use it in their recipes, yes, I'm sure you are very worried right now. You know why I think people love it, Andrew? It's because it is a cheap sauce that tastes expensive and you can put it on cheap food to make that food have a lot of flavor but without tasting cheap. Because sometimes if you pick an extra hot Tabasco, it's very thin and has a vinegar vibe to it. It can ruin a dish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Sriracha doesn't do that. No, Sriracha is a good sauce but I will say over the years I ate a little bit less of it. I stopped putting it on everything because I'll tell you the other chili sauce alternatives that I use even for my pho. Anyways, let's keep going. Somebody says in Vietnam, people don't even use Sriracha. They use Chin Su or Tolu Mex. Yeah, so I think this is the thing that a lot of people don't realize is that Hoi Phong Sriracha is from America. That's, even though you see it on the tables of all the pho restaurants in America, it's not from Vietnam. So that's not what they're eating in Vietnam. Right, it was just made by a Vietnamese refugee. But it was based off of a Thai sauce that they don't even really use in Vietnam. Yeah, I heard that because Sriracha got so popular here at certain pho shops in Vietnam, they started using it but really it's not traditionally a Vietnamese thing. Yeah, and I believe, I don't, yep. There was a documentary about this in 2013. He was exposed to it by either living in a refugee camp in Thailand or knowing some people who did. Right, I think he did spend some time in Thailand, yeah. Shout out to David Tran, Andrew. We've actually met him. And yeah, I spoke Cantonese to him before. All from the six to six, man. Hey, shout out to Rose Mead. Somebody said, is this only in the US? Because here in the UK, it costs the same as it has before. Yeah, I would say basically overseas, this effect has not rippled and been felt overseas. But believe me, if Sriracha really is in a shortage, then you're gonna start to feel it overseas. I think Andrew in the UK, they're not buying it up as constantly. They're probably still on the shipment from like six months ago. They're not like putting it on everything. Right, now is maybe David, this hike in price, is the shortage built in and there's not a shortage at the moment? Or is there? Well, long story short, I heard the big dispute and we're gonna get into this in the next comment that it's a lag between the legal thing, the pepper shortage from the drought of Mexico and how it translates to the production process. So you might have heard about the thing that caused the drought a year and a half ago, but you don't see the drought until now because that's how the supply chain works. Right, because the sauces take some time to be made. Yeah, so anyway, Andrew, let's get into the drama surrounding what underwood farms. They got, there was a crazy lawsuit involving huay fong foods where there was millions of millions of dollars involved, Andrew. Why do you think so many people are interested in this from a legal perspective? They're almost studying this like a crime podcast. No, I would say this, Americans, and I mean Americans as a non-Asians, are kind of taking on sriracha as their own. Like, they care about it is what I'm saying. And that's why I would say, sriracha really blew the lid open as far as like spicy food. That and Sichuan food really made like, for example, white people get into super spicy food. So, and I think that a lot of white people can eat spicy foods now due to kind of being introduced maybe via sriracha. Andrew, there have been multiple articles saying that Americans' median spiciness level for their flavor profile or their tongue has just been going up and up and up every year. And sriracha is a huge part of that. So is Chipotle, you know, a lot of the Mexican sauces from Mexico. Right, right, like a Valentinas or... Cholula. Cholula, yes, my favorite. I forgot the name. Moving on, Andrew. Somebody said there are other hot sauces that are alternatives. For me, I like Kroger. I like this one. I like that one. What do you think? Because it's true. Ever since sriracha, so sriracha's been around since 1980, guys. I looked it up. They said it didn't blow up and get this cult non-Asian following until 2010. So that following's only been going on for 13 years. That's people dressing their kids in sriracha shirts, by the way, which is crazy, Andrew. You can find on Google image search more pictures of white kids dressed up as sriracha bottles wearing sriracha shirts than you can ever find any Asian kids. Is sriracha the most accepted Asian product in America? Because think about it. You wouldn't have your white kid dressed up as a bottle of soy sauce. That would be even more weird. You mean like Kiko Mons or something? Yeah, because sriracha is a little bit more whimsical. It's red and green. It has a cool look. It's also, I think for some reason, like even though white people may not always think about how it's from America, I think it being from America does help. Yeah. Dude. I think it is. There needs to be more investigation. I'm not saying there's not some YouTube videos analyzing this sort of like cultural pop cultural sub genre trend that happened around sriracha in the non-Asian community, but it needs to be examined even further. Because what you say, Andrew, in the Asian community, people always use sriracha, but they would just use it almost as a sauce. Yeah, I don't love sriracha any more than I did 10 years ago, but I still like it. But like you said, Andrew, people feel like it did something for their taste buds and opened them up to a brand new world. Like that teacher in third grade that told you you could be anything you wanted to be in your life. Well, you know, I got to give sriracha a lot of credit. You know, after eating that in college, I really got into Asian food and Asian cuisine. Then I went on a trip over to China and Vietnam, and that really changed my life. Now I've got an Asian wife and half Asian kids. Now I'm married to a Chinese Malaysian woman, and I got three kids. Dude, honestly, that obviously is an extreme 11 out of 10 case. It's probably happened. Somebody said the Kroger's version is actually pretty decent. I got something to say about the Kroger's sriracha. I actually like it, but unlike real sriracha, if you use it more than three or four times in a row, you will start to feel sick of it. I think that Huay Fong food sriracha, Andrew, you don't get sick of it. Yeah, another notable one is Trader Joe's is not bad. Yeah, those are not bad. What do you think about this argument? Somebody said, it's not even that good. Real foodies know that sriracha from Huay Fong is actually such a mid-hot sauce. I've heard this even from Asian people before. Not a lot, though, but I've heard this from a lot of different types of people. So can I tell you this? I don't think it's mid. I wouldn't use the word mid, but- That's extreme, that's extreme. But I use the garlic chili sauce and huay sin sauce with my phone now. I do not dip my meat in sriracha. I think meat in sriracha, the sriracha's too overpowering. It's actually too strong and too spicy and kind of takes over the meat. So for me, I just don't understand how people could squeeze the whole sriracha bowl. You know what? That's why Americans love it so much because they're like, oh, there goes the sriracha. I would compare it to, and to me, Huay Fong food sriracha is almost like the Rolex watch of srirachas. You know how you can argue that like, Patek's or like, you know what I mean? Like AP's got better movement or even like this Grand Seiko has better movement than a Rolex due to the intricacies. But at the end of the day, people aren't just gonna get a Rolex Submariner. Right. It's just the one that made it in. Is it the Toyota Camry of hot sauces or it may be the Lexus? Or BMW 3 Series. It's just sort of like, you know, you get a Rolex and a 3 Series. You know what is? You pop open someone's garage and you see a 3 Series, you're like, oh, all right. Nobody's going against it. Right, right, right. Somebody said the main thing that I think the sriracha has good is the flavor behind the heat because it's the first ultra hot sauce that's really not that hot in an over way. It's only hot in a sweet, warm, low way. Right. No, I mean, it is still a good sauce, guys, for sure. And I think it is still very unique in its own way. David, of course, this comment had to make it political. They were like, yeah, I used to like this product, but I'm not buying it at these Joe Biden prices. Right, obviously connecting Joe Biden with crazy inflation and et cetera, et cetera. I mean, but it's funny because Andrew, like we said, anything that makes it to the non-Asian world, it becomes politicized. Somebody said, freaking conservatives, you guys think climate change is fake now? It's ruining our favorite hot sauce because now they got droughts in Mexico where Huay Fong gets the chilies from. So this became politicized on both sides. Right. Anyways, David, going to the takeaways. First of all, I'm just gonna go ahead and say, no, this is not the end of sriracha. I think they will figure this out. Droughts in Mexico are somewhat common. However, it has been that they are more common as of the last few decades. Now that's why a lot of people attributed to climate change. So, you know, and, but also people think, oh, climate change is not necessarily man-made. It just happens all the time. So you just kind of have to deal with this. Dude, everything just opens up such a multi-layered onion of arguments in 2023. What do you think about people saying that sriracha is just a passing food trend? Because they said pesto was big in the 80s and 90s. Then it's sort of- It's still around though. And then it switched to ranch. You know, for a while, people were super into ranch in America. They're a low-fat ranch. This ranch, Hidden Valley Ranch versus Paul Newman's versus, I guess ranch was really big. And then it switched to barbecue sauce. And then it switched to Chipotle, which is more like opening up to the Latin American vibes. Interestingly enough, Andrew, Piri Piri from Mozambique to Portugal to all around Europe and Canada has still yet to trend in America from like Nando's like Piri Piri. Yeah. Collaboration chili oil is not that popular either. Let me tell you this, David. Sriracha will always be around. You know why? Because it mixes well with other things. You mean Asian food, non-Asian food, everything, right? It mixes well. It mixes great with ketchup. It mixes amazing with mayo. Think about it. Tabasco doesn't do that. Yeah. Yeah. Sriracha does. So I'm saying, guys, I think sriracha's around forever. And I mean, if it's gonna take some other Asian billionaire or even some white billionaire that's like, well, you know, I see the opportunity here. I'm gonna get you a farm, David. Mr. Tran, I'm getting you a farm. And you know what I think the key is to, Andrew, is it tastes kind of expensive, but the price at its retail pricing is actually very cheap. Yeah. I don't know who's buying it at $120 or $60. That's crazy though. But anyways, guys, we have our own chili oil that I wanna plug real quick. Shameless plug. Smala, click on thebeacons.ai. Link down below. You can sign up and get the updates for when the pre-orders start. Also more information on it at the Instagram. Andrew, is this the next wave? You know how like, hey, I think sriracha needs to stick around, but maybe, you know, the chili oils, of course, you know, from Sichuan. Guys, it's from Smala, from Sichuan to Sicily. This is where this takes you. It is an Italian, Chinese-inspired chili oil. I'm very excited about it. Anyways, guys, Shameless plug is over. David, any last things? You know, I have not seen non-Asian people debate something this fervently that was Asian, you know, since like Bruce Lee. And you know what? Bruce Lee, also an Asian-American icon, but also because he was validated by Americans, even though Asians still liked him, he was, after being validated and cemented as a legend by non-Asians, that's when he's like, God stats. Yeah, I think if non-Asians never got on sriracha, Asians were never gonna dress up as sriracha bottles on Halloween. I mean, some people would have, but not nearly to, like you said, it never would have broke the mainstream American Hollywood stars access Hollywood TMZ lexicon without non-Asians. Yes, an American thing now. All right, everybody, let us know in the comments down below what other hot sauces do you use? What do you think about sriracha being the greatest, most well-known Asian-American sauce ever? Remember, Kekomon is from Japan and all these other brands are from Japan. I think, Andrew, my final word is that if you make me pick all the different sriracha alternatives right now, I'm still picking huaifeng foods. Well, even over the authentic Taiwan. Yes, for me. All right, everybody, let us know what you think in the comments down below. We're the Hop Hop Boys and until next time, we out. Peace.