Attention fellow SoCal Sriracha fans! There will be a hearing at Irwindale City Hall on Wednesday, February 26 to address the alleged odors coming from the Huy Fong Foods plant. Fans of Huy Fong Foods and its iconic Sriracha hot chile sauce are encouraged to attend the meeting to show their support. The company has maintained that there is no odor being emitted, posting a banner outside of their factory that reads: “No Tear Gas Made Here”, and offering free tours to fans who’d like to see "how [their] Sriracha is made and how delicious it smells". 

SAVE SRIRACHA! Rally — Wednesday, February 26 at 6:30 p.m.
Irwindale City Hall
5050 N. Irwindale Ave., Irwindale, CA

Resolution No. 2014-07-2667

A resolution of the City Council of the City of Irwindale California, declaring its intent to conduct a public hearing on February 26, 2014 at 6:30 pm at the city council chambers, Irwindale City Hall to determine whether any noxious, irritating or offensive odors [allegedly] emanating from the Huy Fong Foods, Inc. facility at 4800 Azusa Canyon Road, Irwindale, California constitutes a public nuisance.

Huy Fong Foods Invites Sriracha Fans to Visit Irwindale Factory 

As many diehard Sriracha fans know, Huy Fong Foods has been in a bit of a legal battle with the city of Irwindale, CA for the past several months. The city contends that Huy Fong Foods’ new factory—they recently relocated from Rosemead, CA—is emitting an odor that is irritating to local residents. (I’ve never smelled anything outside of the factory during my numerous visits.) And while the city has added a “breach of contract” charge to its lawsuit, it still looks as though Huy Fong Foods is prepared to defend their business, insisting that they’ve done nothing wrong, and that there is no offensive odor coming from their factory.

In fact, they want to prove it. Just into my inbox is this note from Huy Fong Foods asking fans to come see—and smell—for themselves. Here’s your golden ticket…

Dear Sriracha Friends: 

After many months of transitioning from Rosemead and testing our new equipment, we are pleased to announce that we are now ready to invite visitors to our new building in Irwindale. Therefore, if you are interested in seeing how our Sriracha is made and how delicious it smells, we would cordially like to invite you, at your convenience, to see our facility during our regular office visiting hours, which is Monday through Friday, from 9 am to 3 pm. Please feel free to call customer service at (626) 286-8328 to schedule an appointment. We look forward to seeing you. 

Best regards, 

HUY FONG FOODS, INC.

Willy Wonka is opening the gates! By all means, get yourself a factory tour! And if you can’t make it in person, feel free to check out the pics from my visit to the massive 650,000 square foot Sriracha mecca:

Slideshow: Huy Fong Foods Factory Tour

Recipe: Sriracha Honey Roasted Green Beans 

These spicy roasted green beans look delicious, and they also cook up in a jiffy! A mere five ingredients—soy sauce, honey, Sriracha, sesame oil, and black pepper—get mixed together, tossed with green beans, and thrown into the oven for 8-12 minutes. I think I can handle that! (Though I’d probably throw in a few cloves of minced garlic right when they came out of the oven.)

This recipe, from the blog “Barefeet in the Kitchen” is already vegetarian and can easily be made vegan by swapping agave nectar (or similar) for the honey. If you’re looking to avoid gluten, feel free to substitute Bragg Liquid Aminos for the soy sauce, or look for raw coconut aminos if you’d rather it be gluten- AND soy-free.

Serve as a delightful side dish, or atop a bowl of brown rice/quinoa/etc. for a hearty vegetable entrée!

Sriracha Honey Roasted Green Bean recipe [via Barefeet in the Kitchen]

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]

Sriracha Cocktail Recipe: “East End” from The Elm in Brooklyn, NY 

If you haven’t had a cocktail made with Sriracha before, allow me to humbly inform you that you’ve been missing out. While I’ve yet to try this spiced-up concoction from The Elm restaurant in Brooklyn—made with gin, maple syrup, lemon juice, Navy-strength rum, and a dash of Sriracha bitters—I’m pretty excited by the mere thought of it.

Get the full recipe here:
Sriracha and Gin Make an English Cocktail With Bite [via MensJournal.com]

Related posts:

• Watermelon-Sriracha Sangria recipe [from The Veggie-Lover’s Sriracha Cookbook]
• “Bleeding Mary” cocktail recipe with Sriracha [from The Sriracha Cookbook]
• Strawberry-Sriracha Margarita recipe [via DomesticFits.com]
• Sriracha Vodka now exists, and Bloody Marys will never be the same