![]() While chili oil, typically made by pouring hot oil over chiles and aromatics to create a sauce, has been popular in China for decades, the Western world started paying attention after the success of Lao Gan Ma. “Maybe they are not wanting to buy the same things, and they are getting more adventurous with buying food products on social media.” “I think that especially during the pandemic, a lot of people cooking at home need anything possible to amp up their cooking game,” Susan said. Susan and Mike Wong, who started selling the Bits Chili Oil on Instagram in February, believe the pandemic helped prompt the recent surge in popularity. ![]() The recent wave of product can be attributed in part to chefs and restaurateurs nostalgic for flavors they experienced in the past, the rise of entrepreneurial thinking during the pandemic, and a growing acceptance and need among diners for a hot sauce that is aggressive in both texture and flavors. It’s so popular in China that tourists often travel with their own bottles. It’s not so much a condiment as it is a composed dish you can eat on a spoon, with an intense, sweet onion aroma and a plethora of textures and spices. It’s a sludgy mix of oil, fermented soybeans, dried chiles, crispy onions and MSG. For many years I called it the “sauce with the stern lady” (she is not smiling in the photo). Hers is the face that stares back at you on the label. Lao Gan Ma, the gold standard of chile sauces, was created in 1984 in Guizhou, China, by Tao Huabi. After all the bottles had been considered, it was the Lao Gan Ma that won over all of them. They sampled the condiments, squinting their eyes and pursing their lips. I watched as the three men dunked a series of pink plastic spoons into the sauces. At the last minute, I introduced a bottle of Lao Gan Ma Spicy Chili Crisp to the mix. ![]() They assembled an array of fiery condiments, including hometown favorite Sriracha and bottles of Cholula, Tapatío, Tabasco and sambal oelek. In February 2015, in a tiny ramen-ya in the Far East Plaza in Chinatown, Jonathan Gold led a hot sauce taste-off with chefs Roy Choi and Alvin Cailan.
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