Some people do like it hot, and that definitely includes me. I feel like I’ve been eating hot sauce, chili sauce, taco sauce, Tabsaco Sauce and spicy salsa since I was born.

Quite often, ethnic foods tend to have quite a kick to them. Sometimes it’s “built into” the food and other times it’s served on the side as is this Chinese Chili Garlic Sauce from Huy Fong foods. These are the same manufacturers of the famous Sriracha Hot Sauce, and seeing as I live in the new Chinatown (not the one near downtown L.A.) near good old M.P., it’s no surprise that Huy Fongs headquarters is based in Rosemead, not far from where I live. Actually, I believe this is originally Vietnamese and not Chinese since a lot of that language is on the packaging (as well as French). Still, nearly every Chinese restaurant carries it. You’ll recognize the bottles of the stuff from the distinctive green cap, although I believe a lot of competitors copy this loook.

I stuck with the blended Sriracha hot sauce for quite awhile as the condiment of choice (I put it on corn on the cob the very first time I ate it, haha) for it’s powerful hot kick and overpowering garlic aroma. I put it on nearly everything. However, recently I’ve gotten into a different variety of their sauce. This one has the actual chili seeds whole in the sauce and is a bit more chunkier as opposed to blended.

You’ll find some version of the Sriracha sauce in most Chinese or Vietnamese restaurants in bottles, but the chunkier Chili Garlic Sauce is often served out of the bottle in a small glass jar with a metal cap along with a spoon. Sometimes you look at the stuff and wonder just how long it’s been sitting out there, or whether they ever refresh the stuff.

I’ve actually come to like the chunkier version better even though there are the whole chili seeds inside it. It is just a pungent as Sriracha but seems to stick to food better or something. I like to put it on top of stuff like Mongolian Beef Noodles as pictured. It’s also good to use in cooking, though you have to be careful; the sauce lends great heat but also acidity and a strong raw garlic flavor to whatever it’s mixed into.

A jar of the stuff is only a couple of bucks and since you’re not going to use a quarter of the jar at a time, this definitely qualifies as Cheap Eats to have around the house.

One of the best things about the Huy Fong Chili Sauce is that it pretty much lasts forever. This is the case with a lot of hot sauces of course. As long as it’s tightly capped and refrigerated it can last for quite awhile. If it’s not opened you can store it in the pantry nearly forever. One thing I noted though, if you store it in a cupboard where the temperature gets pretty hot, the color of the sauce can change from a vibrant red to a sort of dull penny color. And the taste seems to be the same, though not as fresh. If you’re like me though, you won’t have that problem as you’ll go through your jar in no time.

Cheap Eats Score: 8/10