Condiments usually take a backseat to main dishes, but some extraordinary sauces and pickles supersede their second-fiddle mealtime status. They deserve the culinary spotlight, and For the Love of Condiments, a column that celebrates the world’s condiments, aims to deliver just that. (Tell us about your favorite condiment: info@cityspoonful.com / @CitySpoonful.)
Left to right, Matouk's Flambeau Sauce, Calypso Sauce and West Indian Hot Sauce. Photo by Anne Noyes Saini.
Those who bemoan woefully wimpy spicing in New York’s restaurants would do well to travel with a bottle of Matouk’s. These hot sauces from Trinidad and Tobago pack legitimate heat and uniquely West Indian flavors.
The Flambeau Sauce (first ingredient: pickled Scotch bonnet peppers) is the hottest of my chosen three. This is for hardened chili lovers who enjoy a pleasant burn that lingers on the tongue well after a meal. Aside from the Scotch bonnet peppers, there isn’t much flavor—this hot sauce is purely a source of added heat.
On the other end of the spectrum, Matouk’s Calypso Sauce offers far less heat and a tangy-sweet, mustard flavor. This sauce blends aged and pickled Scotch bonnet peppers with mustard, onion, garlic, spices, vinegar and cane sugar, and the result is more like an extra-spicy mustard than a hot sauce.
My favorite of the Matouk’s sauces, the West Indian Hot Sauce, holds the middle ground. It’s respectably hot but also delivers a distinctive, tangy flavor. The secret to its success: small chunks of unripe papaya blended with aged, pickled Scotch bonnet peppers, onion, garlic, mustard and spices.
I keep these three hot sauces in my refrigerator to spice up canned beans, eggs, bland takeout food, anything fried (samosas!) and even sandwiches. Apparently, my go-to Venezuelan arepas joint in Astoria, Arepas Café, had a similar idea—a bottle of Matouk’s West Indian Hot Sauce sits on every table.
