#InTheLoop | Eat the Heat with Queens-Made Thai Hot Sauces
BY QEDC It's In Queens
Here’s a condiment that perfectly rides the heat wave. Plus, it’s on local shelves.
Long Island City-based SD Sauce produces raw, unprocessed, preservative-free, handmade Thai hot sauces in such flavors as the original blend, BBQ, and ginger vegan.
The recipes feature lime juice, Thai bird chiles, garlic, herbs, and cane sugar to create a deep heat that feels like an authentic taste of Thailand, where salty, spicy, sweet, and sour are supposed to mix.
Not surprising as the company’s founder, Sutta Saraphum, hails from the Southeast Asian country. She immigrated to the United States in 2011 and immediately missed many of her homeland’s flavors. The New York Thai fare was too sweet, too vinegary, and too full of preservatives for her taste. She especially missed the Nam Jim, a dipping sauce that’s a fixture on Thai tables.
In 2015, Saraphum created her original blend, which is basically her version of Nam Jim, and founded SD Sauce. It was an act of love, nostalgia, and maybe even a bit of frustration with the Thai-American food scene.
The result is a small-batch product that revolutionizes the experience of eating steamed fish, grilled chicken, oysters, shrimp, sushi, dumplings, vegetables, tacos, eggs, even pizza. Some consumers add it to salad dressing.
SD Sauce products are made at the Entrepreneur Space at 36-46 37th St. Buy them online or at the following Queens stores.
Elmhurst
DNZ Supermarket, 77-00 Queens Blvd.
New York Marts, 75-01 Broadway
Pata Market, 81-16 Broadway
Tea Cup Cafe, 76-23 Woodside Ave.
Top Line Supermarket, 81-37 Broadway
US Supermarket, 82-66 Broadway
Woodside
3 Aunties Thai Market, 64-04 39th Ave.
H.F Dollar & Up, 39-23 62nd St.
Food Express Market, 39-39 63rd St.
Long Island City
Foodcellar Market, 04-85 47th Rd.
SD Sauce is actually on shelves in more than 85 locations around the country.
Images: SD Sauce