Wherein the author embraces a ridiculous title and explores some of the world’s most beloved condiments.
Ajvar. Photo by mymiscpics
Ajvar
Ajvar is a mushy relish that is very popular in The Balkans. It is principally comprised of red bell peppers, eggplant (aubergine), garlic and chili pepper. The main ingredients are both baked and stewed, which makes creating Ajvar quite a laborious and time-consuming process.
Currywurst Sauce
This is the most important ingredient in one of the most popular and delicious fast foods in Germany – currywurst. While you can buy it bottled at most stores in Germany, it’s pretty simple to make this famous wurst topping, which consists of ketchup dosed with curry powder and paprika.
Salsa Lizano. Photo by believekevin
Salsa Lizano
A staple of all Costa Rican kitchens, Lizano is a slightly sweet condiment that packs a spicy punch, given the inclusion of turmeric, pepper and mustard. It would also appear to be quite addictive – threads of foodie message boards are filled with desperate cooks looking for a place to find a bottle in their country.
Chutney. Photo by bassclarinetist
Chutney
Types of chutney are as varied as are the regions in India that they originate from. Among the more popular are mango, tamarind and peanunt/red chili. Other concoctions can include ingredients like beetroot, shrimp, curry leaf and eggplant.
Pebre. Photo by ryangreenberg
Pebre
Still a bit of a traveler’s secret, eyes go glassy when this Chilean condiment is discussed. The recipe says it all – coriander, chopped onion, olive oil, garlic and ground or pureed spicy aji peppers. It’s most usually piled on top of barbequed meat and often served with bread.
Fish sauce (yes, you read the brand correctly). Photo by thatgirl
Fish Sauce
The gaggiest of all condiments, fish sauce is a staple in many Southeast Asian dishes, such as Cambodia’s delicious Amok. Disgusting a smell as it may be, it somehow becomes a magic ingredient when used in the right combinations.
When I have a bad day at work, I just imagine what it would be like to work in a place that makes this stuff, which is largely comprised of fermented anchovies or sardines.
Tzatziki. Photo by cathepsut
Tzatziki
Most often used on gyros, Tzatziki is a condiment (arguably a dip) that combines puréed cucumber and strained yoghurt with garlic, salt, olive oil & pepper. The whole thing looks a bit like what oozes out of a zombie’s brain after it has been cracked with an axe.
Shiracha. Photo by bump
Sriracha Sauce
Nobody seems to know what the original purpose of Sriracha sauce was but it’s now turned into as catch-all as catsup. Often used as a condiment with seafood, it’s also been used as a topping for everything from sushi to pizza. Chili peppers give it the whallop that it’s known for. Also known as Rooster Sauce, which comes from the logo on the bottle.
Photo by stephenliveshere
Vegemite
The inclusion of this condiment is simply to placate the Australians (and hangers on) who worship this paste made from yeast extract. Brits will also go on about their similarly-created marmite. With over 20 million bottles made just by Kraft each year, there’s no escaping its popularity. Some even say that it’s a great hangover cure.
Chimichurri. Photo by scaredykat
Chimichurri
Chimichurri is a popular sauce from Argentina and Uruguay, often used as a marinade for meat. Most people make the Homer Simpson Drooling Sound when it’s mentioned. Key ingredients include chopped parsley, minced garlic, oil, vinegar and red pepper flakes.
Photo by davecobb
HP Sauce/Brown Sauce
While some Americans have a taste for steak sauce, most across the pond are consumed by it. What’s the magical combination that makes it so popular? How about malt vinegar blended with fruit and spices (HP) or meat stock mixed with flour (Brown Sauce)…
Harissa. Photo by geekstinkbreath
Harissa
Harissa is a hot chilli sauce made from crushed piri piri chillies, tomatoes and Paprika. This North African creation is even sometimes served alone as an appetizer, especially in Tunisia, where it is present at every meal.
Gochujang. Photo by robobbpy
Kochujang (Gochujang)
This is a must for the Korean kitchen. Gochujang looks a bit like high-end ketchup but tastes quite different because of its ingredients – chili peppers, glutinous rice powder, fermented soybeans and red peppers. It’s almost holy when combined with Bibimbap (a dish made of rice, vegetables and sliced meat). Not suggested as a condiment when eating live animals, though.
Photo by theedinburghblog
Hoisin Sauce
More of a dipping sauce than a condiment, this sweet, soy-based liquid does not contain fish despite the fact that it literally translates to English as “seafood”. It’s often served with spring rolls or pork.
Photo by julep67
Cholula Hot Sauce
Cholula is a brand from Mexico that makes one addictive Hot Sauce. Packaged with a trademark wooden cap, this condiment is made with pequin peppers, red peppers and various spices.
Photo by verity borthwick
Mayonnaise
I was going to exclude this but then thought of the outcry that would come from Europeans, who take mayo to new levels of obsession. Also, any opportunity to show a picture of one of travel’s guilty pleasures (french fries, chips, frites, whatever-the-F) is a good one.
This is probably as good a place as any to also list Salsa Golf, a South American goop that is a simple combination of mayo and ketchup, usually slopped on potatoes.
Tahini. Photo by singlecupofcoffe
Tahini
Tahini is a Middle Eastern topping often used in pitas. The key ingredient is sesame seed paste, which gives it a taste unlike any other. With nothing particularly spicy about it, it often even outs even the hottest stuffed pocket.
Sprinkles of Schichimi. Photo by hamachipop
Shichimi
This seven flavor chili pepper powder is a staple in Japan and is often added to soups and noodle dishes, although sushi chefs have recently taken to it as well. Its unique taste comes from the addition of other elements, often including mandarin peel, poppy seed, sesame and nori.
Photo by abielskas
Heinz Ketchup
It is not until you’ve had another country’s watery, tomato-tasting sludge that you begin to appreciate the fructose-infused ketchup that Heinz makes. Spend a month in Russia or Laos and you’ll be surprised just how much you miss it.
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116 Comments... join the discussion!
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Marmite is from New Zealand!!!
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Yeehaw! Now what we need is a catalog of recipes wherein the author demonstrates how these condiments can be mixed in varying combinations to provide flavor and sustenance to the serious traveler without the need to spend precious travel resources on actual foodstuffs!
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I love fish sauce, especially if it’s paired with green mangoes. Mmmm. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. It’s also pretty good with rice hehe.
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No its not.
And where is the salt? Surely the king of condiments.
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I’m pretty sure single ingredient stuff naturally found in oceans and mines would be called a mineral. Condiment? Not so much.
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In spite of the zombie brain reference, my mouth is watering! Plus I learned a lot.
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We just stopped at the local store here in Guatemala City to pick up some Heinz ketchup – the local brand is waayy too sweet and Heinz is just like we Texans like it. Good article.
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I wholeheartedly agree with the last- Ketchup. I’ve been in Colombia for over six months now and I miss the ketchup. Most versions here are gelatinous, translucent neon-red, with a few red flakes. Yuck.
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Fantastic post – I couldn’t stop reading it!
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tzatziki is totally turkish and it is called cacık!
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I thought it was Macedonian.
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BTW. It’s Uruguay NOT Uraguay.
Check Wikipedia at least before post a note
Alex, from Uruguay.
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Thanks. Sorry we overlooked that, but we can’t run every word through Wikipedia. Spellcheck works pretty well, usually.
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Sorry about that. You’re right, of course!
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holdin it down for Siracha!! I love it on eggs, in soup, mac&cheese…on open wounds!
Tom, hmoe run my man…good thing i have a fridge full of condiments
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Where I live in Mexico, and the locals laugh at Cholula as much as they laugh at Corona…they can’t figure out why gringos would waste their time on them. But then, where I live, no self-respecting restaurateur would serve anything other than their own home-made habanero sauce. Cholula is for Americans who actually think they’re getting something authentic to douse on their Enchilada/Burrito/Chimichanga combo platter with yellow rice and refried beans.
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Well Tom On Isla… ain’t no fun to be laughed at by the locals (or the jaded expats), or to have your preferred condiment (read: best easily procured at Von’s in Mammoth Lakes, CA) compared to that swill they call Corona… What specifically do you recommend we try to get hold of for our eggs up here north of the line? Let us know. I’m ready to hold auditions for a new pepper sauce!
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or even better: any chance you could sneak us a recipe for said home-made habanero sauce? I can get the habaneros…
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Thanks for the reminder about Ajvar. A colleague from Georgia gave me some a couple of years ago and it was heavenly. I never really knew what it was called. Now I can search for a recipe!
I’ve tried many of these condiments. About the only one that seriously does me in is Vegemite! That is a seriously deranged taste according to my palate!!
Perhaps not a fore-runner, but I’d also add Piri-Piri, that mixture of peppers, vinegar and oil the Portuguese so love to your list. I love the variety of tastes & textures to be found by buying home-made Piri-Piri at local food markets throughout the Algarve.
Great romp through the tastes of the world. I’m going to send this link to all of my foodie friends!
Gwen McCauley
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what about sweet thai chili sauce? surely that deserves a spot on this list…
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Thans Tom and Kate!
True, it´s a word but not any word…it´s a name!
See ya!
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I’ve only heard of vegemite, and I’m officially not trying it. ever.
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Great article and thanks for referencing my article on eating live animals! (http://matadorabroad.com/eating-live-animals-one-eaters-experience-in-korea/)
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Great list but seriously! No barbecue sauce???
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Worcestershire sauce!?
tabasco!?
great list though.
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Where is the Humus!!!???!?! Maybe some tibouli as well!
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If you’ve ever been to Utah or possibly a near-by arctic circle restaurant you might have been lucky enough to encounter fry-sauce, possibly Utah’s only contribution to world cuisine. It’s a mix of equal parts ketchup and mayonnaise with usually one other “secret ingredient” which I’m not at liberty to discuss. But if you can’t decide what to put on fried potatoes it’s the perfect combination of East meets West. I’ve included a website where you can order it: “Some Dude’s Fry Sauce” But I don’t work for them or anything.
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A rose by any other name would not be Uruguay!
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Another one I’ve come to love is mint raita in Pakistan and India.
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For a divine french frie dipping experience, mix the cholula with mayo. Serious.
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Actually, tahini (also called tahina) IS sesame paste. The product you have pictured is hummus, a mixture of chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil.
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Two suggestions, one from The South (I suppose I should clarify, the U.S. South), and one from Mexico.
Chow Chow can be strikingly great on bland items.
And I’ve always preferred Valentina’s to Cholula’s (we used to it it on chichorinos, sp?, in Mexico.
Oh, and look to Korean food for some extra condiments that make normal dishes a bit nutty.↵ -
Nice summation except for the last bit about Heinz ketchup. Try the Heinz they sell in Canada, where it’s still made from sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. The difference in taste is dramatic and I have yet to find anyone who prefers the American version after trying this. If only they would go back to the old style here.
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Brown sauce is the same as HP (HP is a brand name)… a sauce made with meat juices is completely different as is just called gravy on the UK
Marmite is NOT from New Zealand and is the equivalent to vegemite and also came before vegemite! its similar in taste but not quite the same but is definietly a UK product. Though there are countries which are allowed to make Marmite and call it that but the recipe is not the same nor as good as the UK orginial… sorry bit of a Marmite nerd! ;o)
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Lingonberry goes with everything here in Stockholm: meatballs, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, bacon, blood budding, potato palt…
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Awesome post! I can’t wait to try everything I haven’t tasted on this list. Sometimes I get so stuck on the old favorites I forget how many different condiments are out there in the world, thanks for the reminder!
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Just saying…. Russian ketchup is waaaaayyy better than heinz
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Where is Tabasco on the list?
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It’s spelled shichimi. It’s short for shichimi togarashi, which translates as seven flavor chili pepper.
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Ajvar is the best!
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Nice article; sriracha is a personal favorite, and I was delighted when a coworker of mine gave me his large bottle (which he bought in the States) before leaving Seoul.
Related to Chris’ comment about mixing cholula with mayo, I like to mix sriracha with mayo as a dipping sauce for tuna cakes.
Also, when I was on a roadtrip to Jirisan a few weekends ago, we stopped at a rest stop and had roasted cuttlefish with a small container of gochujang for dipping, which turned out to be a tasty pairing.
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Cacik, haydari, tzatziki and the forty million other versions of garlic/cucumber/mint infused yogurt are neither Greek nor Turkish nor Balkan exclusively– I’d say (from personal tasting experience and 6 years living in Levantine lands) that it’s a general Mediterranean concept. I will admit that my preference is for a really thick, garlicky Turkish haydari (cacik is the cold, soupier version)
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Awesome – entertaining – enlightening and made me hungry all at once. Great writing! Great topic!
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Ohhh lordy craving vegemite on toast now. I wish it was breakfast.
Love this list, I’m hoping to spread/dip/mop my way through the ones I haven’t tried already.
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Nutella?
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So glad to see Heinz (their “makes food ketchuppy to various degrees” commercial won me over once and for all). But what about amba?
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Oh my god Lizano! The best thing ever, goes with everything!
I lugged a 1ltre bottle all the way from Costa Rica the whole way up through Central America and California and home to Ireland in my backpack.
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Same here in the UK – Heinz Tomato Ketchup ( He saved the big daddy for last
) has nothing artificial in it – just tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, salt, spices, herbs, and celery extract. I can’t imagine it any other way…putting fructose in sounds like a travesty.
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I just noticed…Mustard is missing from this list!
That’s on that’s gotta be up there, close to ketchup as a staple condiment in many countries – whether it’s the mild, sqeezy bottle stuff Americans put on hotdogs, or the super strong and sharp, mouthwatering (& eyes and nose watering) English Mustard, or the French classic Dijon – surely this is an accidentally careless omission?
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No it’s not……………..
The Marmite Food Extract Company was formed in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England, in 1902,
The Sanitarium Health Food Company obtained sole rights to distribute the product in New Zealand and Australia in 1908.[↵ -
Come to South Africa (that’s a country for the Americans) and try All Gold ketchup (we call it tomato sauce). It puts Heinz to shame.
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Here’s an excellent habanero mango sauce recipe that is super delicious:
Ingredients:
1 peeled and mashed mango
12 Fresh habanero pepper (I used 18)
1 mustard, yellow (yes, the kind you put on hot dogs!)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Ounce(s) white vinegar
1/2 Ounce(s) curry powder
1 tsp cuminYou can add or subtract stuff to your taste. I like mine super sweet. Don’t forget to wear gloves while making this! I woke up the next morning with finger-shaped red marks ad hand prints on my body from the oils on my hands… which was interesting…
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I imagine that Cholula is laughed by Mexicans mostly because it’s not marketed to them anymore. It’s only been available in the US for twelve years, but it was around a few decades longer than that in Mexico. I think some large corporation picked them up and started distributing them to the US (in fact, Jose Cuervo owns the company now, hence the gringo distinction).
But that doesn’t mean it’s not good stuff. I prefer it because it’s more chili than vinegar. I tend to buy Tapatio (which is actually made in California, unlike Cholula, which is made in Mexico), because it’s cheaper.
I do agree that any self-respecting cook (with time on his or her hands) should make their own chili sauce. But it’s a tad labor intensive. Breaking up, seeding, toasting, and processing chili pods takes a lot of time. Which is why I’m happy that there are commercially available sources of good chili sauce flavor so readily available up here in gringoland.
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All of these sounded like good entries that I can’t really raise any complaint over. I’ve tried many of these and am looking forward to trying more. A note on Fish Sauce: this stuff is awesome and when mixed into dishes you often can’t taste it at all but it adds so much flavor.
The condiment that I crave is something called Go’uat Saw (my own phonetic spelling). It’s Hmong and is some of the spiciest stuff I’ve ever tasted. But, it’s also very flavorful. I’m not sure of the exact ingredients but I’m pretty sure it has chili peppers and fish sauce. It’s been a long time since I’ve had it and I dearly miss the taste. I’m not complaining that it wasn’t on the list, it’s probably not very widespread or well known
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Nice overview over condiments!
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honestly, Lizano is the best condiment on the whole list. I brought a backpack of it back from costa rica to give out as presents to friends and family, but ended up keeping half for myself. on scrambled eggs, on meat, on EVERYTHING!
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