Pins the fetish meter with a beautifully designed little totem bottle that dispenses its ruby red elixir using a tiny pump. “Taste and Comfort” is the motto of House Foods Corporation of Tokyo which became famous for its solid Indian curry roux back in the sixties. Ramen shops are taking on pho restaurants in an all out noodle war for the heart and soul of American slurpers. Dry cleaners will certainly benefit.
As NYC’s egalitarian nature fades, Chicago keeps the ethnic traditions alive. Il Primo’s Giardiniera is de riguer on Italian Beef sandwiches. Il Primo uses serrano peppers in their hot mix which has not gone unnoticed among Chicago’s growing Mexican community. “Giardiniera” literally translates as “female gardener”. Italian Beef is best eaten by creating a safety drip zone from mouth to countertop. Vive bene!
Probably the best known brand from Oregon’s Beaverton Foods, Inglehoffer goes after true mustard heads with a variety of mustards sold in small fetish type jars. The company was started by Rose Biggi, an Italian immigrant who exploited the excellent local horseradish grown in beaver dam soil. Inglehoffer is a made up name; the lower-brow Beaver brand has some excellent mustards as well. Current president George Biggi is a no nonsense 80 year old badass who still has plenty of mustard on his fastball. Rose would be proud.
Herdez sells more salsa than anyone in the States and is a favorite among actual Mexicans. The brand is now owned by Hormel (the company that Spam built), but originally it was the Del Castillo and Pons Hernandez clans that brought mass market quality to Mexican shoppers. Besides the casera, Herdez makes an excellent salsa verde as well as a ranchera that provides a decent mole for chicken or pork. The pop-top cans contain the perfect amount of salsa to accompany a meal; only gabachos buy Herdez in a glass container.
After several health department violations Stubb commented “what’s barbecue without a couple of rats?” Chased out of Lubbock before landing in Austin, Stubb protested that he “couldn’t fight the IRS with barbecue and sauce”. Stubb’s bottled sauces are generally tepid but his rubs are excellent. Please don’t confuse grilling with BBQ, it annoys the pig.
How this provincial little company in Maine got picked up by Trinidad’s largest privately held conglomerate (CL Financial) can only be guessed at. World Harbors puts out various “ethnic” sauce & marinade products whose main ingredients seem to be water and HFCS. CL Financial also owns Angostura Bitters and currently suffers from a huge liquidity crisis. Stiff drink, anyone?
Courtesy of Kraft, who else? Established market share in the eighties by sponsoring rodeos and other redneck events. Bull’s-Eye lost the Burger King account to Sweet Baby Ray’s, a much hipper sauce. “The Big, Bold Taste of Bull’s-Eye” sounds like a porn movie. Like Mexican salsas, you should really make your own.
Originally made for Colonial tastes, many Malaysians believed that Lingham’s was a British product. Echoing Norman Nash and his Jamaican Pickapeppa sauce, Mr. Lingham hawked his backyard brewed elixir by going door to door in Penang on his bicycle; he eventually sold the recipe to a local Chinese family. The brand is marketed in the States as Lingham’s Hot Sauce, a needless mistake. “The World’s Finest Multi-Use Condiment”, perhaps it is.
A very good sauce from a mediocre chain owned by T.G.I. Friday’s. The names “Smith” and “Wollensky” were plucked randomnly from the NYC phone book, allegedly. Ads featuring professional golfer Craig “The Walrus” Stadler were made to create brand appeal and lure investors thereby inflating the stock price. Ironically, the legendary authentic Peter Luger Steak House sells its own inferior sauce while Keens doesn’t even bother. Medium rare please, of course.
The foundation of the Ferrero empire, hard to exaggerate how much Nutella has been smeared all over Italian pop culture. Parisians love theirs in crepes with sliced banana. This hazelnut and chocolate spread is mostly sugar and oil. World Nutella Day is February 5th. Very sexy stuff.
