Who has had Sambal? What's your favorite Hot Sauce? (1 Viewer)

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Laron

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I'm a bit of a connoisseur of hot sauce. While Sambal is more of a paste, than a sauce, I will still include it in my label of hot sauces!

I try many different types of hot sauce, but I always find myself coming back to Tobasco, which contains tabasco peppers (Capsicum frutescens var. tabasco), salt, and vinegar. (Made on Avery Island in Louisiana, USA.)

Sambal is made from a variety of chili peppers, with secondary ingredients such as fish sauce, shrimp paste, ginger, garlic, shallot, scallion, palm sugar, lime juice, and rice vinegar or other vinegars. I first became familiar with it thanks to a Malaysian friend in Sydney. I then began to frequent Malaysian restaurants now and again.

Sambal.JPG
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Sambal is an Indonesian loan-word of Javanese origin and is native to the cuisines of Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Brunei and Singapore. It has also spread through overseas Indonesian populations to the Netherlands and Suriname.

vegan nasi lemak.jpg
Vegan Nasi Lemak with sambal, by Pappa Rich

Nasi Lemak is the dish I always have at a Malaysian restaurant which comes with sambal. Nasi lemak is a Malay fragrant rice dish cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaf. It's the national dish for Malaysia, but also popular in neighboring areas such as Singapore; Brunei, and Southern Thailand.
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In New Zealand, a contender for tobasco is Kaitaia Fire Chili Pepper sauce, made with organically grown cayenne chilis. This sauce is pretty good as well. It's New Zealand's number one brand for hot sauce.

Is anyone familiar with sambal? What's your favorite hot sauce?
 
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Linda

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I've grown up with Tabasco - there always was a bottle on the kitchen table next to the salt and pepper.

I don't like the hot stuff anymore; however, our children do - the hotter the better. Habanero is one of those off the charts hot chilis. I ask them to bring their own hot sauce for meals here. So now there are two bottles of habanero sauce, and I've seen the effects on experienced chili eaters - turning bright red, sweating, and not able to speak. Yeah, I don't really want that experience.

When I was in school, I had a Pakistani professor who would have us over sometimes. She had 2 levels of food - hot and make you fall down and cry. I watched someone try the second version - it was like he was cooking from the inside out.
 

Anaeika

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These two are my favorite, the Siracha Sauce and the garlic chili paste. It’s mildly hot to me and full of flavor. My brother’s mouth burns when he eats it, the wimp! Haha
 

Angela

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Sambal sounds delicious with that complexity in the heat. I have always felt that Tabasco was too much heat with not enough flavor.

It may be a bit lame to your complex heat palate, but my go-to, put-it-on-everything is Franks Redhot.
Truthfully I'm a wuss when it comes to heat, but I do enjoy it even if my mouth is burning a little so long as the flavor is yummy. Haha
 

Anaeika

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Oops! Just realized I didn’t answer your question. I haven’t had Sambal. I haven’t seen it here, so I’ll check the Asian market. The combination of ingredients look good. Thanks for introducing me to something new!

Tobasco is not my favorite as I don’t find it hot enough and it’s too vinegary for me.

I like that this forum is esoterically based, yet we have a community feel and can go off topic and discuss these sorts of things too. :)
 
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Laron

Laron

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Oops! Just realized I didn’t answer your question. I haven’t had Sambal. I haven’t seen it here, so I’ll check the Asian market. The combination of ingredients look good. Thanks for introducing me to something new!
While the Nasi Lamak dish may seem simple, it has some amazing flavors, including the rice. Coconut rice is very tasty! Sambal alongside that is like heaven!

I've grown up with Tabasco - there always was a bottle on the kitchen table next to the salt and pepper.
I can drink that stuff! I go through it very fast. It's over priced here because it's imported so I don't get it often.
I like that this forum is esoterically based, yet we have a community feel and can go off topic and discuss these sorts of things too
Wait until my new thread about trying not to stand in "cow patties" as a kid on my dads farm! (just kidding...)

I have always felt that Tabasco was too much heat with not enough flavor.
Tobasco is not my favorite as I don’t find it hot enough
Hmmm.

She had 2 levels of food - hot and make you fall down and cry.
I'm yet to be beaten on eating the hottest sauce. I tried what was meant to be the hottest ever made on Earth at a market in Sydney once. You were meant to only have a few drops. I had a couple of teaspoons and I was fine.
 
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Anaeika

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We can put some Franks on cow pies. Haha
And I digress...
 
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Laron

Laron

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We can put some Franks on cow pies.
Only if he says yes!?? You're not referring to little boys? (A not so appropriate name given to Saveloys (seasoned sausage) in New Zealand.)

Have you had ghost chilies?
I'm not really familiar with all their names but ...

1200px-BhutJolokia09_Asit.jpg

...I think so!
 
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Anaeika

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Oh no! I am NOT referring to little boys here. So funny how we both speak English but have huge cultural differences and definitions of words. Here, a cow pie is a cow pie. Don’t step in those.

You would know if you had ghost peppers bc they are the hottest. There are youtube challenges to eat one.
 
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Laron

Laron

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Clearing up some confusion.

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These are called little boys in New Zealand, aka franks or saveloys — but an old fashioned word and really inappropriate of course.

Cow patties are these in NZ.

cow patty.jpg
 
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Pucksterguy

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The three sauces currently in my fridge. The one on the left is a Carribean got sauce made with Scotch bonnet peppers. Very hot, a little ab will do you. I like it because it adds lots of heat but lets the flavour of the food thru. I hate sauces that take over a plate. The second is a Japapeno sauce, I'll get a chipotle sometumes too. It has a nice smokey flavor. The Siracha has become my goto heat on the table, Franks too.
 

Snowmelt

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I like flavour, not heat, and I like all those ingredients of the sambal except for chili (fish sauce, shrimp paste, ginger, garlic, shallot, scallion, palm sugar, lime juice). Fresh garlic, onion, shallots, scallions, coriander, ginger and some ready made curry pastes are my go to. I love the Indonesian flavours, especially beef rendang, nasi goreng, or the Thai flavours, especially their coconut milk green or red curries. Small sprinkling of chili is always welcome, but only to add a note. Feeling like I nose-dived Mount Pinatubo while it was retching forth from Hades is not my idea of fun.

th (4).jpg
 
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Laron

Laron

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The three sauces currently in my fridge.
That one in the middle looks like one I need to try!

I've never liked Sriracha.
I love the Indonesian flavours, especially beef rendang, nasi goreng, or the Thai flavours, especially their coconut milk green or red curries.
Same!

I would put chili on everything if I could! :-D
 

Snowmelt

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One thing I would say about place is that New Zealand really is part of Oceania, and has the feel, look and flavours of that. Think Lobster, Paua, Muttonbirds, etc. I've come to see Australia really is part of Asia, as we are just that slight overreach past Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Those Brits really didn't know what they were getting themselves into!
 
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Angela

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I forgot to mention fresh oysters. A big part of Oceania dining.
Mmmm.
My husband and I tried oysters for the first time a year or two ago. They are so Interesting! We want to have them a couple more times raw before we go cooking them to really get a handle on the flavor and texture. But it was extremely yummy.

I've seen cooking shows that have Australian / new Zealand chefs and they often have a great knowledge and cooking expertise with all the stuff you've mentioned.
 

severed.lies

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I really only use Pickapeppa from Jamaica. Ingredients ( cane vinegar, sugar, tomatoes, onions, raisins, sea salt, ginger, peppers, garlic, cloves, black pepper, thyme, mangoes, and orange peel, aged in oak barrels). Note, the pepper variety is not specified, but it is low on the Scoville scale.

pickapeppa1.jpg

My mother and grandmother always had this on hand. It is mildly spicy, with a sweet undertone.
 

Anaeika

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I really only use Pickapeppa from Jamaica. Ingredients ( cane vinegar, sugar, tomatoes, onions, raisins, sea salt, ginger, peppers, garlic, cloves, black pepper, thyme, mangoes, and orange peel, aged in oak barrels). Note, the pepper variety is not specified, but it is low on the Scoville scale.

View attachment 3565

My mother and grandmother always had this on hand. It is mildly spicy, with a sweet undertone.
I need to find this. It looks like it is full of flavor.
Last night I added Jamaican seasoning to a home-made Asian ramen soup for the first time and it was surprisingly really good.
 

Snowmelt

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I wonder if there's any truth to the idea that babies in the womb acclimatise to their mother's chili-eating habits, making their emergence into a curry-eating world much easier. I think that would be correct as elements from the digesting food would come down the umbilical via the placenta and into the child's bloodstream. Thinking of a little tot seeing a funny, rough-skinned knob of something lying on the bench, and thinking: "Ginger - hey, dude, way to go!"
 
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Laron

Laron

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I really only use Pickapeppa from Jamaica.
I'm familiar with this brand. I've tried a few different flavors they have out, but not that particular one. I remember a mango one I loved. I actually saw it in the supermarket today before I caught your post — it's uncommon around here. The only place I've seen it when eating out is at a Pizzeria (Steffano's) in Nelson
 

AmandaPanda17

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Well I guess I'm just a big baby cuz there is no way I would put most of your guys picks for hot sauce! I like to taste my food not be seen in corner of the restaurant tears flowing like lava and smoke bellowing from my ear canals. I will put this on just about anything, pizza, eggs, Cheetos and probably a bunch of other random things. f053053af84fc58a02426158c828c2d7--taco-bell-sauces.jpg
 

Anaeika

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I wonder if there's any truth to the idea that babies in the womb acclimatise to their mother's chili-eating habits, making their emergence into a curry-eating world much easier. I think that would be correct as elements from the digesting food would come down the umbilical via the placenta and into the child's bloodstream. Thinking of a little tot seeing a funny, rough-skinned knob of something lying on the bench, and thinking: "Ginger - hey, dude, way to go!"
I can answer this! I could not get enough hot, spicy food during my first pregnancy and my son has a good tolerance for hot foods despite being my picky eater.

During my second pregnancy I could not tolerate spicy foods and this son cannot handle any type of heat, even basic black pepper.
 

Anaeika

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I really only use Pickapeppa from Jamaica. Ingredients ( cane vinegar, sugar, tomatoes, onions, raisins, sea salt, ginger, peppers, garlic, cloves, black pepper, thyme, mangoes, and orange peel, aged in oak barrels). Note, the pepper variety is not specified, but it is low on the Scoville scale.

View attachment 3565

My mother and grandmother always had this on hand. It is mildly spicy, with a sweet undertone.
I bought this, tried it, & like it. Now I am trying to figure out what to put it on. Thank you for the recommendation!
 
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