In case you've been living in a cave... not just any cave, but a very bland cave... better yet, the gingerbread house... Sriracha is an immensely popular, and very pungent hot sauce.
The town where the plant is located (Irwindale, CA) filed a complaint (which they won) that "the strong smell of peppers being crushed at the plant was causing headaches and irritating the eyes and throats of nearby residents."
Though in reality it's more reminiscent of the 6th plague where the sky was filled with smoke and ash... it just brought up thoughts of our least favorite Passover food (no, I wasn't referring to Manischevitz).
At this evening's seder, millions of Jews will eat marror, the bitter herb symbolizing our decades of painful, demeaning oppression at the hands of the ancient Egyptians. Some use lettuce, but many Jews use sharp, raw ground horseradish as their Marror.
If you've ever had a straight spoon of ground horseradish, you could probably lift a hot air balloon straight into orbit. I don't mean the wimpy stuff they sell in jars (though, I'm not such a tough guy I mean buying a horseradish root and grinding it on the very same day. and I have trouble with that, too).
Why would I want to subject myself to that, if I can get by with romaine lettuce?
Why do you think the Torah obligated us to eat bitter herbs to begin with? Why not just remember the bitter times?
Because it's not so easy to cry about something that happened three thousand years ago.
So this year, channel a little Irwindale. Eat your marror in a horribly bitter, painful and tear inducing freshly ground state. Cry a bit.
It's at least as important as hot sauce...
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