i through hot sauce too quick to buy it, but i do delight in receiving it as a gift. i tend to make my own bullshit and i'm on a perennial quest to come up with a few recipes of my own. if i want more heat straight up, i use Rani Mirchi powder. if i want more "something" i use Tony Chachere's. if i want more complexity/volume + heat i add in gochujang.

my latest move is a dipping sauce of 50% Zhenjiang (rice-based black vinegar the market name of which sets off the filter), 50% soy sauce, pinches of Rani Mirchi, sugar, and a blob of toasted sesame oil. it's more of a latent heat. i'm trying to get away from salt and into vinegar more when looking for punch/kick, though i am not super keen on sour so it's not a straight substitution. luckily there are so many different vinegars.

but there was a time when it was gochujang with rani and lots of garlic + butter. Rani's ground mirchi is insane, btw. i think they are afghani ground chilis, or that's what the marketing seems to say. you can get like a pound of ground for $15 and i am pretty sure i will die before i use half of it. like a teaspoon will wildly heat up several quarts of stew. wash your hands and measuring utensils immediately after use. or touch your tongue to the barely perceptible dust on the spoon for a pick me up.

a friend of mine just came back from central america and brought me a little bottle of some Chilango Pepperoncino Picante that i haven't yet cracked, though i am eager to. the art on the label is p cool.

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