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The story behind Sriracha

With a distinctive bottle and taste, Sriracha has gone from an unpronounceable challenge to a staple sauce for many Americans. In the U.S. alone, $60 million worth of the sauce was sold last year alone.

But it wasn’t always such a prevalent item on store shelves. David Tran, the man responsible for popularizing the hot sauce, had a long journey beforehand:

When North Vietnam’s communists took power in South Vietnam, Tran, a major in the South Vietnamese army, fled with his family to the U.S. After settling in Los Angeles, Tran couldn’t find a job — or a hot sauce to his liking.

So he made his own by hand in a bucket, bottled it and drove it to customers in a van. He named his company Huy Fong Foods after the Taiwanese freighter that carried him out of Vietnam.

Read more via our profile of Tran, and his beloved hot sauce.

At the time of the Tang Dynasty (June 18, 618 – June 1, 907), the Chinese Emperor Ping officially recognized Yao as an independent people and they were given a charter (Guo Shan Bang) defining that the people could travel freely and live in the mountains where they will not be subject to taxes, chores, or military conscription.

This document also tells their story, from their ancestor dragon-dog, Pan Hu, who married a princess and gave birth to the twelve Yao clans.