Fauxracha at FoCo: Uncovering a Conspiracy
You pick up a bowl of bibimbap at World View, being careful not to burn yourself on the piping hot stone, err…plastic bowl and breathe in the delicious aroma of sub-par Korean cuisine. You notice it’s missing a little something and head over to FoCo’s condiment section. As you reach out for what would be the perfect compliment to your meal, you realize something is wrong. There is no green cap on this red bottle of sauce…it’s…yellow? What you’re holding is, in fact, fauxracha.
The iconic green-cap, red sauce sriracha (pronounced see-rotch-ah, in case you’re curious) that we are most familiar with is produced by Huy Fong Foods and available at Collis. The one available at FoCo, however, is the lesser-known Roland Sriracha Chili Sauce.
Surprisingly, not all students are aware of the horror that is FoCo’s off-brand sriracha. Emily Chan ’16 says that she was unaware that there was even sriracha at FoCo.
“I’m more of a go-to-Collis, eat-sriracha type of person,” Chan said.
Yet, the overwhelming response from students after this discovery was one of betrayal and confusion.
“I just feel sad,” Ying Lin ’16 said. “I remember finding out my sophomore fall. It was one of my friends who pointed it out because we were at FoCo and it was ramen week and we always put sriracha in our ramen. After you know, you don’t look at it the same because after that you’re like, ‘Yeah, this is fake.’ The flavor doesn’t even taste right.”
Liz Gold ’17 echoed this feeling of being cheated.
“It makes no sense that they would have two different srirachas [at Collis and FoCo],” Gold said.
I decided to investigate the matter with sriracha aficionado Allison Chou ’17 by comparing the two sauces side-by-side.
TASTING NOTES:
Roland aka “fauxracha”
Allison: “markedly sweeter, less spicy, in general has less bold flavor, a watered-down version of the real thing”
Becca: “tastes like Texas Pete, honestly"
Huy Fong Foods aka green-cap sriracha
Allison: “so much better”
Becca: “definitely a more complex flavor, not too spicy but not too sweet”
I was able to get in contact with Peter Chojnacki — FoCo’s board plan manager — and relayed the discrepancy between the dining halls’ sauces. I am happy to say he is currently working on acquiring Huy Fong Foods’ green-cap sriracha for FoCo. No longer will our student body feel betrayed by a lack of true sriracha. Even if your bibimbap is mediocre, feel comforted by the fact that you will at least have real sriracha.