My taste buds are wired. Wierd as in I rarely eat spice. It does not go well with me. Especially a spicy gravy, garam masala paste in food... Green or red chilly powder...
There are exceptions though. I love fiery green chutney or red garlic chutney with my piping hot batata vada or vada pav. Or toast sandwich. I love my pao bhaji fiery and I hate tomato ketchup but love the indo chinese green and red chilly sauce.
Since I stayed near a wholesale market, where anything and everything was and still available, I got my dose of these sauces, which were incidentally in big glass "roohafza" bottles. I remember this red chilly sauce way before, when I was probably 7 or 8 and dada ( my dad) had got one small experimental bottle. I enjoyed the semi dried sauce ( expiry dates are checked now) with a slice of white ( not my favourite anymore...not health reasons, it's plain gummy..maybe made of gum.. Lots of it...just kidding) bread. It tasted like fireworks on the mouth, with the hot air emanating from mouth, nose, and ears. I fell in love with this sauce and never liked tomato sauce again.
We frequently stocked these sauces at home. I had them with anything.but mostly with piping hot all parathas that aai made. She added fresh coriander, green chilies and long sliced onions to boiled potatos and added that to dough as filling. They tasted too good. The weird part here was that I hated green chilies in it. I slathered this sauce on piping hot paratha and ate it bit by bit. The hot onion ring hitting my mouth hard and the sauce created a sizzle in the mouth.
For many years then I forgot about the sauce and en I asked aai, she said that sadly they stopped selling it. I didn't know how to procure it. As I still simply hate tomato sauce. I searched and tried and failed at some lolu sauces in Walmart in name of chilly garlic.
Once I was searching the Asian section of Walmart when I came across a simple transperant bottle with green lid and white lettering saying "chauchau " ( I can't read mandarin or whatever it is) just understood that it's a chilly garlic sauce. I took the smallest bottle I could find and muttered "trial basis" to my better (?) half's raised eyebrow. I put the groceries to their destinations when this bottle came in my view. Pursing my lips, I opened the foil seal of the bottle. A small spoon, and the fireworks brought my memories back. An extra all paratha and the sauce, and the memory was complete. Just that it's not smooth.. More thechasque. But taste is just so identical. Of course, I cook the paratha filling for my husband's liking but taste is still there.
I also came across something called gochujang sauce uce when I was reading an article by Sam Sifton in eat section of New York times ( that is the only thing I read in it) . when I came across this sauce. A bit of googly and wiki helped me find it as a Korean chilly sauce. As you know chilly sauces are my favourites, this one also found it self in our shopping cart. I liked this one as well, though the Vietnamese chauchau sauce is top of my list. My next try..sriracha sauce...will surely tell you how I fared.
There are exceptions though. I love fiery green chutney or red garlic chutney with my piping hot batata vada or vada pav. Or toast sandwich. I love my pao bhaji fiery and I hate tomato ketchup but love the indo chinese green and red chilly sauce.
Since I stayed near a wholesale market, where anything and everything was and still available, I got my dose of these sauces, which were incidentally in big glass "roohafza" bottles. I remember this red chilly sauce way before, when I was probably 7 or 8 and dada ( my dad) had got one small experimental bottle. I enjoyed the semi dried sauce ( expiry dates are checked now) with a slice of white ( not my favourite anymore...not health reasons, it's plain gummy..maybe made of gum.. Lots of it...just kidding) bread. It tasted like fireworks on the mouth, with the hot air emanating from mouth, nose, and ears. I fell in love with this sauce and never liked tomato sauce again.
We frequently stocked these sauces at home. I had them with anything.but mostly with piping hot all parathas that aai made. She added fresh coriander, green chilies and long sliced onions to boiled potatos and added that to dough as filling. They tasted too good. The weird part here was that I hated green chilies in it. I slathered this sauce on piping hot paratha and ate it bit by bit. The hot onion ring hitting my mouth hard and the sauce created a sizzle in the mouth.
For many years then I forgot about the sauce and en I asked aai, she said that sadly they stopped selling it. I didn't know how to procure it. As I still simply hate tomato sauce. I searched and tried and failed at some lolu sauces in Walmart in name of chilly garlic.
Once I was searching the Asian section of Walmart when I came across a simple transperant bottle with green lid and white lettering saying "chauchau " ( I can't read mandarin or whatever it is) just understood that it's a chilly garlic sauce. I took the smallest bottle I could find and muttered "trial basis" to my better (?) half's raised eyebrow. I put the groceries to their destinations when this bottle came in my view. Pursing my lips, I opened the foil seal of the bottle. A small spoon, and the fireworks brought my memories back. An extra all paratha and the sauce, and the memory was complete. Just that it's not smooth.. More thechasque. But taste is just so identical. Of course, I cook the paratha filling for my husband's liking but taste is still there.
I also came across something called gochujang sauce uce when I was reading an article by Sam Sifton in eat section of New York times ( that is the only thing I read in it) . when I came across this sauce. A bit of googly and wiki helped me find it as a Korean chilly sauce. As you know chilly sauces are my favourites, this one also found it self in our shopping cart. I liked this one as well, though the Vietnamese chauchau sauce is top of my list. My next try..sriracha sauce...will surely tell you how I fared.
