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The driving force behind crunchy chilli sensation Lao GAN Ma

theguardian.com

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Re: The driving force behind crunchy chilli sensation Lao GAN Ma

#4

Post by atonse »

This is amazing. I’ve been buying this for nearly a decade and refer to it as the angry lady hot sauce.

I used to enjoy perusing the “hot sauce aisle” in my local Great Wall Asian supermarket and this jar looked great. The jar said “spicy chili crisp”, which I also joke are the 3 most wonderful words in the English language. I also liked that it looked like the lady was angry (I chalked it up to cultural differences in marketing):

> “Lao Gan Ma deliberately places an extraordinary average-looking and old Chinese female on its product package, which conversely arouses strong curiosities of foreign consumers,” it says.

It’s a staple in my kitchen (along with Lee Kim Kee’s Chiu Chow Chili Oil and Momofuku’s chili oil) and happy that they’ve seen the success they have.

I just realized if they wanted to be cute here, Lao Gan Ma sounds kind of like “Love, Grandma” :-)

Re: The driving force behind crunchy chilli sensation Lao GAN Ma

#5

Post by lost_tourist »

rongopo wrote: post #2

This reads like pure PR, still I could not find a viable recipe. Any ideas how to prepare it?

Lol is everyone these days jaded? It's a fluff piece, it's not a PR announcement, lots of people are nostalgic or happy to see something lighter fare occasionally, not everything has to be "the world is burning".

Re: The driving force behind crunchy chilli sensation Lao GAN Ma

#7

Post by cwbrandsma »

rongopo wrote: post #2

This reads like pure PR, still I could not find a viable recipe. Any ideas how to prepare it?

I treat it like a regular condiment. I will make a stir-fry, serve it, and mix some in on my plate. So like adding ketchup to my hamburger (I add it to hamburgers too).

Re: The driving force behind crunchy chilli sensation Lao GAN Ma

#8

Post by matthewdgreen »

atonse wrote: post #4

This is amazing. I’ve been buying this for nearly a decade and refer to it as the angry lady hot sauce. I used to enjoy perusing the “hot sauce aisle” in my local Great Wall Asian supermarket and this jar looked great. The jar said “spicy chili crisp”, which I also joke are the 3 most wonderful words in the English language. I also liked that it looked like the lady was angry (I chalked it up to cultural differences…

I ran into a Heinz imitation of this at my local supermarket and it wasn't particularly spicy (as could be predicted.) How spicy is the real stuff? https://www.heinz.com/product/00013000001267/heinz-57-collec...

Re: The driving force behind crunchy chilli sensation Lao GAN Ma

#9

Post by atonse »

matthewdgreen wrote: post #8
atonse wrote: post #4

This is amazing. I’ve been buying this for nearly a decade and refer to it as the angry lady hot sauce. I used to enjoy perusing the “hot sauce aisle” in my local Great Wall Asian supermarket and this jar looked great. The jar said “spicy chili crisp”, which I also joke are the 3 most wonderful words in the English language. I also liked that it looked like the lady was angry (I chalked it up to cultural differences…

I ran into a Heinz imitation of this at my local supermarket and it wasn't particularly spicy (as could be predicted.) How spicy is the real stuff? https://www.heinz.com/product/00013000001267/heinz-57-collec...

Not sure but none of these are terribly spicy. They’re actually quite flavorful.

They add a (slightly spicy) nice warm blanket of flavor to a bunch of things while enhancing the original flavor of the dish (which is likely what the msg is doing)

Re: The driving force behind crunchy chilli sensation Lao GAN Ma

#10

Post by fatjokes »

matthewdgreen wrote: post #8
atonse wrote: post #4

This is amazing. I’ve been buying this for nearly a decade and refer to it as the angry lady hot sauce. I used to enjoy perusing the “hot sauce aisle” in my local Great Wall Asian supermarket and this jar looked great. The jar said “spicy chili crisp”, which I also joke are the 3 most wonderful words in the English language. I also liked that it looked like the lady was angry (I chalked it up to cultural differences…

I ran into a Heinz imitation of this at my local supermarket and it wasn't particularly spicy (as could be predicted.) How spicy is the real stuff? https://www.heinz.com/product/00013000001267/heinz-57-collec...

Jesus that packaging and name is bland. If you swapped the nationalities of the respective companies, people would be screaming "cheap knockoff".
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