Put five more hot sauces on your radar
Five to try
Sbez, from the proprietors of Eszett restaurant, wasn’t the only hot sauce to surface during the pandemic. Here are five more local varieties heating things up.
Fresno hot sauce by Alta Adams
Chefs Keith Corbin and Daniel Patterson always served their remarkably bright hot sauce alongside Alta Adams’ signature fried chicken — and in the mayo of the fried chicken sandwich — but when the West Adams “Cali-soul” restaurant temporarily shuttered dine-in service and reopened with takeout, the sauce became formally available for retail. The chefs like to marinate fresh Fresno chiles with white wine vinegar, sugar, salt and water for at least one week before blending them with a bit of xanthan gum to thicken the mixture slightly. Think Tabasco with a lighter, brighter, more refreshing flavor.
$10 per 8-ounce bottle; altaadams.com
You can find a jar of chili oil on the tables at countless restaurants and noodle shops in the San Gabriel Valley, but in the last two years, Los Angeles has experienced a chile sauce revolution.
Holy Sauce by Holy Basil
Downtown Thai-food outpost Holy Basil sells a funky, herbaceous, wildly hot condiment for dipping meats and vegetables, marinating proteins or dousing something as simple as a fried egg. Inspired by a classic Thai seafood dipping sauce, the restaurant’s Holy Sauce base is a combination of fish sauce, palm sugar and fresh lime juice punctuated by chopped garlic, green bird’s eye chiles and makrut. The team always lets it steep overnight before jarring and is working on a line of Bangkok-style hot sauces such as a tamarind-based condiment and a Thai-style Sriracha-leaning, ketchup-like option.
$12 per 4-ounce jar, toasttab.com/holybasil
Mama’s Way by Woon
At Woon, the homestyle, family-run Chinese restaurant in Historic Filipinotown, chef “Mama Fong” encourages customers to add its white vinegar and garlic chile sauces to the restaurant’s beef noodles and provides the condiments on the tables. During the pandemic, when full service paused, her son — owner and chef Keegan Fong — combined the two for takeout. He quickly found that bottling and storing them together allows the vinegar to further break down the chiles, resulting in a brighter, spicier concoction. This sauce is refreshing and delightfully acidic. The team also is experimenting with a new, lacto-fermented sauce.
$7 per 10.8-ounce bottle; $12 for two; woonkitchen.square.site
Fermented hot sauce by Hail Mary
Atwater Village’s Hail Mary often focuses on fresh produce and fermentation, and the pizzeria’s bottled hot sauce is no exception. The restaurant’s lacto-fermented condiment launched prior to the pandemic in small batches, but with an increased focus on takeout and house-made pantry goods, Hail Mary began bottling and branding the sauce in 2020. It features Fresno chiles but also blends in roasted garlic, caramelized onions, white wine vinegar and salt, sweetened with dates for a savory, robust, complex and acidic hot sauce that pairs perfectly with Hail Mary’s buttermilk poppyseed ranch (also available by the bottle).
$8 per 10-ounce bottle; toasttab.com/hailmary-la
El Chilito
One of L.A.’s newest hot sauces is, in a way, one of the oldest. The Gonzales family’s deeply flavorful and textured El Chilito is inspired by a decades-old recipe passed down from a great-grandmother to founder Ruben to his daughters, Debbie, Evelyn and Rubi, who help him make, market and sell the blend of chile de arbol, toasted sesame seeds, piloncillo, garlic, pepper, vinegar, oregano and salt. Ruben Gonzales says he always dreamed of selling food professionally, and the family made it happen during the pandemic. They let the concoction rest for roughly one day to let the flavors combine, then they bottle it and offer a sliding price scale to make the new hot sauce affordable and accessible for the community.
$8-$10 per 10-ounce bottle; elchilitohotsauce.com
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