There we go again, spilling our thick, dark, liquid goop over everything. No, not that thick dark liquid goop - this one:



We like to chuck it over our lunch here in dear old blighty and apparently, so do you tasteful Canadians. Well this got me thinking…

What sauces or condiments particular to your country/nationality/ethnic origins do you like to spill over your lunch envoironment? Share with us - together we can venture boldly into a universe of pre-bottled goop and our meals need never be tasteless or predictable again.

Mayo, the dutch put mayonaise on EVERYTHING. We drown our food in it.

Icelanders have this home made sauce thing that they call cocktail sauce. It's nothing like that cocktail sauce that you guys make to dip prawns in and it's pretty much guarantied that every Icelander above the age of 5, knows how to make it.

The recipe comes in few variation. The most simple one is just mayonnaise with a little bit of ketchup stirred in it, until it turns pink. A more complex recipe is half and half mix of sour cream and mayo with a little bit of ketchup and mustard added to it. It goes great with deep fried fish, chicken, burgers and french fries (chips).

I think that this sauce exists in few American burger joints and that they call it “secret sauce”.

Vegemite.

Obviously. Duh!

Nah, only on toast… sandwiches, biscuits… And people cook all sorts of strange pastries with cheese and Vegemite. I find that quite revolting.
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I dunno if we have a national condiment/saucy-type-thingo that's added to food, not integral (like Vegemite).

A personal family fave is Lea & Perrins… Which is a sort of dark, peppery, spicy, watery Worcester sauce… Made by HP foods… and imported from Britain.

-Australia still lives in the shadow of its colonial past. Most of our traditions are repackaged British stuff. But most Aussies like “tomato sauce” and “BBQ sauce”… plus Tarter sauce for fish, which is just a sort of mayonnaise really.



Anyway, I do love a bit of HP sauce, but generally I prefer to eat food without adding sauces. I'll usually only put sauce of stuff that doesn't taste that great to start with.

I know we already have an entry for the UK, but I'm going to put in a word for salad cream.

Those heathens on the other side of the Channel have slowly started stocking ketchup in their hypermarches, but you still can't get a decent bottle of salad cream. Fifteen different varieties of mayonnaise? No problem. But it's not the same. A salad just isn't a salad without salad cream!

Barbeque sauce. Americans dump it out onto all forms of animal flesh. It seems especially prominant here in the Southeast where a brand called “Sweet Baby Ray's” reigns supreme. Different regions have their own kind of barbeque sauce. Some are ketchup based and others are mustard based.

In America, when you say “barbeque” you imply that whatever it is is slathered in sauce. It can be cooked in an oven or microwave or skillet or anything else. Barbeque means the sauce. – As I understand, “barbeque” in other parts of the planet is a method of cooking rather than a dark goopy sauce.

Personally, I love Soy Sauce. I also believe MSG gets a bad rap. MSG is delicious.

But I agree with Ozone, I like food without sauces. I prefer dry seasonings. Far more sophisticated and less mess.

Tony Chachere's



or

Zatarains




If you've never heard of either, you've never been to Louisiana, because we put one or both of these in nearly everything.

And I do mean EVERYTHING. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, it doesn't matter. If you want to spice up your life, this is the shit, guaranteed.

mayo! over everything! we eat it outa the jar with a rusty knife!

usedbooks
Barbeque sauce. Americans dump it out onto all forms of animal flesh.

I was going to go with ketchup but BBQ works!

Well I don't know about the Britsh, but I'm British, and I use heinz tomato ketchup. I also hate tomatoes…
…That's about it. :o

Oh, but I won't say no to some reggae reggae sauce :D

ketchup.

american ketchup.

usedbooks
In America, when you say “barbeque” you imply that whatever it is is slathered in sauce. It can be cooked in an oven or microwave or skillet or anything else. Barbeque means the sauce. – As I understand, “barbeque” in other parts of the planet is a method of cooking rather than a dark goopy sauce.

What? Where I'm from, that sort of idea will get you slapped. Then again, I guess being in the east you also eat mustard based sauce, so you've pretty much got it all wrong.

In addition to BBQ, I personally love A1 sauce on pretty much any meat.

Soy sauce on porridge. Try it, it's not bad at all.

And then ketchup on everything else.

AQua_ng
Soy sauce on porridge. Try it, it's not bad at all.

I can see that. I use a bit of salt on my porridge which is a pretty healthy, yet tasty way to flavor that otherwise flavorless gruel and flavor vice, soy sauce is essentially liquid salt.

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Icelanders have this home made sauce thing that they call cocktail sauce. It's nothing like that cocktail sauce that you guys make to dip prawns in and it's pretty much guarantied that every Icelander above the age of 5, knows how to make it.

The recipe comes in few variation. The most simple one is just mayonnaise with a little bit of ketchup stirred in it, until it turns pink. A more complex recipe is half and half mix of sour cream and mayo with a little bit of ketchup and mustard added to it. It goes great with deep fried fish, chicken, burgers and french fries (chips).

I think that this sauce exists in few American burger joints and that they call it “secret sauce”.

Thousand island sauce? Thats what i eat prawns with. From now on Im calling it Iceland sauce.

I recently acquired a taste for this Vietnamese stir fry sauce that I can pretty much combine with any meat or vegetable. It's probably doing horrible things to my intestines at this very moment, but I can't stop myself.

Hot sauce. It even cures a stuffy nose.

As for barbeque; in the NE its the sauce salthered on everything. But where they take it seriously it's a way of life and a coll'nary magnificence y'all Damnyankees will ne'er understand.

Condiments? Easy one, I'm jewish, all jewish people when eating a bagel must have some smoked lox on it. And I mean MUST, it's delicious!

crocty
Well I don't know about the Britsh

Ssssh, don't call attention to it! He's been drinking again.

More to the point though, one time a Waffle House cook shouted at me for using Heinz ketchup and thereby supporting the Antichrist because Teresa Heinz-Kerry is married to John Kerry, so now I think of him every time it's mentioned. It's rare that I get accused of supporting the Antichrist by eating ketchup. Just wanted some hash browns, man. D:

Right, and it's surprising no one mentions ranch dressing. Isn't it the lifeblood of Southern fatties? “WHUR'S MAH RANCH,” as they say…

Ochitsukanai
More to the point though, one time a Waffle House cook shouted at me for using Heinz ketchup and thereby supporting the Antichrist because Teresa Heinz-Kerry is married to John Kerry, so now I think of him every time it's mentioned. It's rare that I get accused of supporting the Antichrist by eating ketchup. Just wanted some hash browns, man. D:

During his run for president I stuck to the Tabasco. Strange how in 2004 the Heinz ketchup disappeared from some local eateries.

I miss cream cheese on bagels. I love it, it hates me. Damn lactose intolerance.

Here in Arizona everyone dumps Ranch dressing on everything fries, baked potatoes, salads, onion rings, etc.

Ochitsukanai
More to the point though, one time a Waffle House cook shouted at me for using Heinz ketchup and thereby supporting the Antichrist because Teresa Heinz-Kerry is married to John Kerry, so now I think of him every time it's mentioned. It's rare that I get accused of supporting the Antichrist by eating ketchup. Just wanted some hash browns, man. D:

Did not know that. Still, Hunt's is the one obviously made of evil.

I'm quite fond of Oyster sauce as a flavouring for pretty much anything, although I normally stick to Ketchup.

Speaking of dry flavourings, when I was in Germany I had some chips but instead of salt and vinegar (which I was epxecting) it was some kind of orangey-crystal-powder stuff, that tasted like smoked salt. Anyone know what it is, it's been bugging me.

Old bay and Balsalmic Vinegar.

same

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Icelanders have this home made sauce thing that they call cocktail sauce. It's nothing like that cocktail sauce that you guys make to dip prawns in and it's pretty much guarantied that every Icelander above the age of 5, knows how to make it.

The recipe comes in few variation. The most simple one is just mayonnaise with a little bit of ketchup stirred in it, until it turns pink. A more complex recipe is half and half mix of sour cream and mayo with a little bit of ketchup and mustard added to it. It goes great with deep fried fish, chicken, burgers and french fries (chips).

I think that this sauce exists in few American burger joints and that they call it “secret sauce”.

Thousand island sauce? Thats what i eat prawns with. From now on Im calling it Iceland sauce.

Dr Wikipedia
Thousand Island dressing is a salad dressing (a variant of Russian dressing), commonly made of mayonnaise, ketchup, Tabasco sauce and finely chopped vegetables, most often pickles, onions, bell peppers, and green olives; chopped hard-boiled egg is also common.

It's similar. If your homemade thousand island sauce is only mayo and ketchup, then you've basically made what we call a cocktail sauce.

Ochitsukanai
Right, and it's surprising no one mentions ranch dressing. Isn't it the lifeblood of Southern fatties? “WHUR'S MAH RANCH,” as they say…

Oh… my… God…

I eat Ranch dressing on SALAD. People around here will eat it on EVERYTHING. Fries, Piiza, COOKIES?! You walk into a fat person's house here in Louisiana, you might not see any food lying around, but damned if you don't see a fucking bottle of RANCH in the living room within ten inches of the remote control. It's not just fat people though. Some fuckers love it on everything. My last straw was when we were making breakfast during one of the family reunions, and I was in charge of frying eggs.

Cousin #1: Hey, can you put ranch on my eggs?
Me: Ranch? On EGGS? Are you serious?
Cousin #1: Yeah man, you never had ranch on fried eggs before?
Cousin #2: It's pretty good dude, try it!
Me: I know you all are family and this isn't MY house, but you all can get the fuck out!

They didn't leave. And they ate their eggs with ranch. Disgusting. I also got in trouble for cussing at a ten year old.

soysauce all the way in Japan baby! There's also this sauce that everyone calls bulldog sauce:



That a lotta ppl put on everything. Am not really sure what it is. I think it's like a thick Worcester sauce, but it's super good on so many things and we eat it on a lot! the ultimate debate in Japan that you see a lot is: do you put soysauce or bulldog sauce on your eggs?

Jonko
Am not really sure what it is. I think it's like a thick Worcester sauce

Soy is nice and salty… Worcester is more like a sweet peppery taste. I like soy.

I like soy sauce on some things, but I'll never understand putting ranch dressing on things like eggs or pizza D:. I don't even understand putting ketchup on eggs, or even worse in my opinion mac and cheese. It kind of grosses me out.

One thing I like a lot that I don't recall being mentioned here though is Sriracha sauce!



I mainly put this in my pho when I eat it, but sometimes I like it with fried rice too. XD

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Icelanders have this home made sauce thing that they call cocktail sauce. It's nothing like that cocktail sauce that you guys make to dip prawns in and it's pretty much guarantied that every Icelander above the age of 5, knows how to make it.

The recipe comes in few variation. The most simple one is just mayonnaise with a little bit of ketchup stirred in it, until it turns pink. A more complex recipe is half and half mix of sour cream and mayo with a little bit of ketchup and mustard added to it. It goes great with deep fried fish, chicken, burgers and french fries (chips)

I dunno what Americans you're talking to. The version of cocktail sauce I'm familiar with is ketchup, mayo and horseradish. Pretty much identical to what you've described.

Now where I'm from, it's cider or malt vinegar on your fries and chips ( usually the same thing depending on which city you're in. ) and for most other things, it's Tiger Sauce. Ranch is a staple in the schools though because they don't serve anything else that covers up the horrible taste of the school food.