srirachamovie:

Sriracha Premieres in Hollywood, June 3!

After playing to sold-out crowds in Atlanta, Indianapolis and San Francisco, the story of LA’s favorite hot sauce finally comes home!

Sriracha will screen Tuesday, June 3 at 2:45p at the historic, 448-seat Chinese Theatre in Hollywood—an official selection of the 17th Annual Dances With Films festival!

Here’s a link to get tickets

Also join and share the Facebook event

Your ticket to this Documentary Shorts program also includes “Friends You Haven’t Met Yet,” “Silver Tsunami” and “Pie Lady of Pie Town.”

“TRU-ly Pickled” Sriracha cocktail recipe

I “might” have been daydrinking a little at Greenbar Distillery. This DELICIOUS cocktail—called “TRU-ly Pickled”—is made with 1 3/4 oz TRU Organic Garden vodka, ¼ oz FRUITLAB Organic Ginger Liqueur, ½ oz simple syrup, ¾ oz lemon juice, ½ oz Bruce’s Prime Pickle Dill “Pickle Back” juice, and 9 dashes of Sriracha. Shake it all with ice and strain into a rocks glass over more ice. Cheers!

Recap: 1st Annual LA Sriracha Festival 

As you may recall (or maybe you saw it in the new Sriracha documentary), I co-hosted the 1st Annual LA Sriracha Festival back in October with my good friend Josh Lurie from FoodGPS.com.

Josh was kind enough to put together a great slideshow from the event with pics from our good friend Bernie Wire, and I invite you to check it out! (There are photos on both pages!)

It was an incredible experience, and we’ll absolutely be doing it again in 2014… and expanding it to other cities! While I loved it all, my favorite part was knowing that a portion of all proceeds was going to Food Forward, a North Hollywood-based charity whose mission is to rescue and donate fresh local produce that would otherwise go to waste. Over 1.7 million pounds of food has been gleaned since 2009, and given to local food pantries, helping feed over 40,000 hungry Southern Californians each month. Presenting them with a check for $2,500 felt amazing!

A HUGE thanks to our sponsors: Huy Fong Foods, ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen, Shellback Rum, TRU Organic Gin, Ten Speed Press, and Uber.

Besides having a great time meeting so many fellow Sriracha addicts, it was also really cool getting to try all the wonderful creations that our talented collection of chefs were cranking out! 

Tons of thanks to all of them:

• Wesley Avila — Guerrilla Tacos — “Best Tacos in LA Under $10”, Time Out LA (2013)
• Nadav Bashan — Bashan — “Most Underrated Restaurant in LA”, Eater
• Neal Fraser — BLD, Fritzi Dog, ICDC, Redbird at Vibiana, The Strand House —Top Chef: Masters (Season 5)
• Gabe Gordon — Beachwood BBQ & Brewing — “Best Brewpub in Southern California”, RateBeer.com (2013)
• Eric Greenspan — The Foundry on Melrose, Greenspan’s Grilled Cheese, The Roof on Wilshire — Iron Chef: America, The Next Iron Chef
• Tai Kim — Scoops — ”10 Best Ice Cream & Gelato Shops” (#8), LA Weekly (2011)
• Esdras Ochoa & Javier Fregoso — Mexicali Taco & Co. — “The Best Tacos in Los Angeles”, laist (2013)
• Christian Page — Short Order — “5 Reasons to Get Out and Explore LA”, Bon Appetit (2012)
• Tui Sungkamee & Jazz Singsanong — Jitlada — Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants (#9), LA Weekly’s 99 Essential Restaurants (2013)
• Chloe Tran & John Vu Cao — East Borough — “One Perfect Day in Costa Mesa,” Sunset Magazine, opening restaurant in Culver City
• Ernesto Uchimura —Plan Check Kitchen + Bar — “Chef of the Year”, Los Angeles Magazine (2012) 

What good is food—especially spicy food—without something nice to wash it down with? To drink, we had Eagle Rock Brewery, Beachwood BBQ & Brewing, and Firestone Walker Brewing Co. pouring craft beers and inventive bartenders Josh Goldman (Soigné Group) and Matthew Biancaniello serving creative Sriracha-spiked cocktails. Los Angeles Ale Works created an artisan ginger ale (with or without Sriracha!) and Pure Water of Los Angeles provided beyond-green purified water from their water systems.

To all the volunteers, attendees, staff, coordinators, and anybody else that helped make this event a monumental success, THANK YOU. Looking forward to making it even bigger and better this year! Viva la Sriracha!

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Photo slideshow: 1st Annual LA Sriracha Festival [via FoodGPS.com]

Looking for something special to get yourself this holiday season? Or perhaps you’re searching for the perfect gift for the Sriracha lover(s) in your life?

How about a signed copy of The Sriracha Cookbook? Or a signed copy of The Veggie-Lover’s Sriracha Cookbook? (Perfect not just for vegans and vegetarians, but also for anyone looking to incorporate more veggies into their life! No gross processed soy nugget junk here… just good ol’ fashioned vegetables!)

If you order a signed copy of either Sriracha cookbook between December 1 and December 25, 2013, I’ll donate 100% OF MY PROCEEDS from the sale on Amazon to Food Forward, a North Hollywood-based charity whose mission is to rescue and donate fresh local produce that would otherwise go to waste. Over 1.7 million pounds of food has been gleaned since 2009, which goes to local food pantries, helping feed over 40,000 hungry Southern Californians each month. (The recent L.A. Sriracha Festival I co-hosted with FoodGPS.com raised $2,500 for Food Forward and I want to keep that momentum going!)

Wanna get in on the action? Want to get a signed cookbook and help get some well-needed funds to a wonderful charity? Simply buy a copy via these links:

• The Sriracha Cookbook: http://bit.ly/SignedSrirachaBook
• The Veggie-Lover’s Sriracha Cookbook: http://bit.ly/SignedVegSriracha

Then, contact me immediately after ordering using Amazon’s buyer-seller messaging system to let me know the name and any note you’d like to have included. Then, I’ll stick it in the mail and have it on its way to you ASAP!

Thanks for the continued support, and for helping one of my favorite non-profit organizations! Happy holidays!

The Los Angeles Times reports that residents of Irwindale near the new Huy Fong Foods factory have lodged complaints about headaches and burning eyes, which they allege are the result of the emissions coming from the hot sauce production facility.

“The city of Irwindale filed suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday, claiming that the odor was a public nuisance and asking a judge to stop production until the smell can be reduced.”

I visited the factory a few weeks back with my friend Josh Lurie from FoodGPS.com, and while we could definitely smell the Sriracha being made once we stepped inside the factory’s production areas, neither of us noticed any such aroma outside the facility. In fact, I remember the smell being much more apparent from the outside of their previous Rosemead location, and I always loved rolling my windows down as I approached.

We’ll see what happens as the story progresses, but I’m hopeful that it doesn’t halt Sriracha production or cause any delays. Huy Fong Foods relies on fresh chiles for its Sriracha—100 million pounds’ worth this year—which are all grown by Underwood Family Farms. They are trucked directly to Huy Fong Foods from the farm, and are washed, processed, and turned into hot sauce immediately, at the peak of their freshness. Harvest season for their jalapeño hybrid peppers is almost over, but they still have plenty more deliveries scheduled which will help ensure supply for next year. An action by the court could cut into that supply.

Get the full story from the Los Angeles Times

View pictures from my tour of Huy Fong Foods