Give It a Try

Have you ever tried something and then fallen in love with it? I recall a time I did. I remember when I was young, I never ate anything spicy nor did I even like it. Sometimes I wondered to myself why my whole family could eat spicy food, but why couldn’t I? As a young child I remember seeing my family gathered together eating noodles with a lot of red chunky sauce in it and they would always sweat so much it looked like water was pouring down their face. Personally I felt kind of left out, but at the same time I didn’t because I didn’t like the smell of it either. It had a really strong sour smell to it, but my family would claim that it tasted good. In order to make the food have spicy taste, there is this hot sauce that I see my family use all the time called Sriracha.

Anyone that enjoys eating spicy food would probably have a bottle of Sriracha sitting around at home. It is a spicy sauce that has a really strong scent to it. When you smell the sauce, it smells really sour. Its texture is kind of chunky and liquidly almost like spicy ketchup. In the beginning, when you first taste it, it tastes a little sweet and then after a few seconds pass by, an intense taste of spiciness hits your taste buds. Sriracha’s bottle design includes a green cap and a rooster logo on the front, which is what distinguishes it from other hot sauces. When someone that likes to eat spice sees the bottle of hot sauce with the green cap, it will most likely remind them of Sriracha. It is a well-known hot sauce, typically used in places such as restaurants, Asian cuisines, and even family homes.

Back in junior high school, when I was walking home on a sunny day, I walked through an area and I saw people eating spicy food. Out of curiosity, I finally wanted to try it to see if it was true that is wasn’t so bad at all. When I went home, I made myself a bowl of noodles and tried Sriracha with it. Before tasting it, I recalled how much I had disliked Sriracha, but after tasting Sriracha, it actually tasted really good, even though it was spicy. The first bite that I took with Sriracha; I finally understood why I always saw my family sweating when they ate it. When I was eating it, it tasted really spicy and it felt like my tongue was on fire. The spiciness of Sriracha heated my body and I started to sweat. After tasting it a couple times, I fell in love with the taste of spicy food. It’s like my taste buds would never forget the taste of spicy food. Afterwards, I ate spicy food more often. So often that I would have Sriracha or something spicy at least once a day. After a while, my intake of Sriracha would increase up to a couple times a day.

I realized that eating a large amount of spicy food had its negative side effects. The negative side effects of spicy food such as Sriracha can have a significant health problem. From my experience, the moment I began eating Sriracha in large amounts with my food, I tended to get stomach aches after consuming it. Due to the burning sensation it caused, it created a severe health problem for me. I couldn’t believe that something that tasted so good could also be bad for me. Therefore, I was forced to change my habits when it came to eating food with Sriracha. Even though it is a severe problem for me, I still ate it because I really like. Therefore, every time I eat spicy food such as Sriracha I would reduce the amount.

The important thing I learned and that I’d like for everyone to know is that, no matter how much you like something, don’t risk yourself for it. Of course Sriracha tastes good and adds flavor to one’s food, but it is also important to watch the amount one consumes. It is important to eat in moderation so that it doesn’t affect your health. Apart from this, I also learned that we should try new things and have an open mind about it. We shouldn’t live saying we don’t like something, especially if we haven’t even tried it once. Who knows maybe some type of food that looks odd, can have any amazing flavor. Like people say, “Never judge a book by its cover”. That was precisely my experience with Sriracha. After having a negative opinion about it, I finally gave it a try, and turned out to be one of the greatest things I have tasted.