Before we continue, a quick quiz...
How much do you love Sriracha?
A) Excuse me Mr. UrbanDaddy, but what’s Sriracha?
B) I'll put it on stir-fries and such, though that’s about it.
C) I’ll use it on pretty much everything—rice-based dishes, pizza, sandwiches—even if I prefer Cholula or Frank’s.
D) I put it that shit on everything. Literally, everything.
E) I love Sriracha so much, I’m legitimately willing to drop everything and go on a trip through Southeast Asia that revolves around its savory origins.
If you answered E—or are just curious about whether or not answer E refers to an actual thing—boy, do we have something for you...
It’s a somewhat customizable, if fastidiously detailed, 15-day culinary journey through Thailand and Vietnam, and it’s more or less focused on the region’s most famous condiment-related export. You can book it now, from the luxury travel connoisseurs at Zicasso.
The adventure will take you to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hanoi, Saigon and other smaller cities and towns, where you’ll stay in five-star hotels and hit all the classic stuff. You’ll visit the Temple of the Emperor of the Buddha. You’ll pay your respects to the monks of the hidden jungle temple of Wa Phat Lat. You’ll traipse through aisle upon wonderful-smelling aisle of renowned marketplaces. You’ll take in the city of Hue’s Trang Tien Bridge. You’ll eat dinner at an architecturally stunning home with a descendent of the royal Nguyen dynasty. You know, “classic” stuff.
But what this is really about is you eating yourself silly—possibly into a coma—at Michelin-recommended restaurants, food stalls and locals’ homes. That means sampling crispy fried chicken skins, oyster omelets (aka, hoi tod) and micro-brewed White Mango IPAs in Bangkok, slurping “Grandma’s Khao Soy,” a curry-based noodle soup, and Nam Prik Noom, a spicy green chili-and-garlic dip, in Chiang Mai, eating the same bun cha that President Obama and Anthony Bourdain ate in Hanoi and sipping the most expensive coffee in the world, harvested from the feces of wild weasels, who have a strange knack for finding the sweetest, ripest coffee beans. Believe us, it’s only weird until you taste it...
Oh, and the Sriracha of it all. With regards to that most pleasurable flavor enhancer, you’ll meet the descendant of the woman who produced the original Sriracha in 1932; at 81-years-old, he still visits the market personally to purchase the chilis used in his family’s sauce. You’ll visit the town where Sriracha was born—called "Si Racha" (you get it)—and learn how to make the sauce yourself at a private class with a local celebrity chef. You’ll try a special kind on your fried noodle dishes in Bangkok’s Yodsay neighborhood. You’ll make your own version of the sauce during a meal hosted by locals in Saigon. And, of course, you’ll put it on pretty much everything else you eat throughout the entire trip.
Otherwise, we’re not really sure why you decided to go on this trip in the first place.
