In a recent issue of Saveur, I saw this:

From the Lingham’s website:

The success of Lingham’s Chilli Sauce today can be partly linked to its continuing use of the original 1908 recipe. In those days there were no food preservatives as we find now, and so the sauce was and is still made from pure ingredients, fresh chillies, sugar, vinegar and salt. With the current use of colourings, flavourings, preservatives and all manner of other chemical additives in many of today’s sauces and condiments, Lingham’s sauce makes a pleasant change that consumers world wide appreciate. It is a natural, quality product, no chemicals, no bulking ingredients such as tomato added, and with a flavour that is popular in both the East and West. Incredibly Lingham’s now sells in over 25 countries, including UK, Finland, Switzerland, USA, Japan, Australia and Chile, well over 60% of production is destined for export. And being a pure product it meets with many international standards, Vegetarian Society approval, US FDA approval and it is of course halal certified. That is quite a success story for the company and also for Malaysia. Surely few other Malaysian products sell as widely as this sauce, a little bit of Malaysia on supermarket shelves in every continent bar Antarctica, and who knows I bet one could find the odd bottle there too, something to alleviate the icy cold!

The company now produces four other products alongside its original chilli sauce, and those are, chilli sauce with ginger, chilli sauce with garlic, chilli sauce with ginger and garlic, and Thai chilli sauce. Not to let the grass grow under their feet, the experts in the Lingham’s kitchens are working on new products as you read this, some still secret, but look out for 100% organic chilli sauce for one.

Everyone has their own preferred way to enjoy Lingham’s sauce, whether it be with noodles, nasi goring or chips. And now the company is compiling some alternative recipe ideas from Lingham’s fans world wide, look out for a chilli crab recipe from Asia, a gourmet beef burger recipe from the USA, not to mention recipes to make spicy new salad dressings, etc. using Lingham’s chilli sauces.

I love hot sauces and condiments of all kinds. I had a belated Christmas gift coming to me from my better half so I ordered a couple of bottles of this Lingham’s stuff from Amazon. They arrived Monday night. I eagerly unwrapped the package and tasted the bright red sauce. It was sweet, like chili sauce, and at first, I was disappointed. Sweeter than I thought. Good, a nice, clean and lasting kick, but it wasn’t love at first bite.

I tell you this because I cook all sort of healthiness for the wife–groats, flax seed, oat burgers, you name it. For Emily, food is primarily fuel–she is concerned with health, first and foremost. Her mother and her mother’s mother were health food nuts way before it became fashionable. They grew up eating tree bark, as Em likes to say. Taste, flavor, that stuff comes a distant second to nutrients.

Ninety percent of the time, I don’t eat what I make for her. But last night I was too tired to cook anything so I helped myself to a few spoonfuls of the lemon and dill brown rice, ricotta-feta, bell-pepper, olives and garlic casserole I made a few days ago (from the Fruitwood, er, Moosewood cookbook).

I got it down thanks to the Lingham’s hot sauce which was excellent in quantity and mixed with food. A little sweet at first but then not overwhelmingly sweet at all, with an appealing spicy aftertaste. Now, I wish I’d brought a bottle to work because all I can think about is that hot sauce. They also have garlic and ginger variations…

I could get into this stuff.