Hot highlights from the first-ever Sriracha Festival

1/16

The Plan Check sriracha burger. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

2/16

A creation by Ernesto Uchimura of Plan Check. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

3/16

A hot dog topped with sriracha ketchup and sriracha potato chips from Fritzi Dogs. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

4/16

A cocktail with Sriracha from Plan Check. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

5/16

A caramel apple topped with sriracha salt from East Borough. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

6/16

Sriracha-mango sorbet from Scoops. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

7/16

The folks from Guerilla tacos cook up some sriracha-laden tacos. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

8/16

Sriracha tostadas de tinga from Mexicali Taco & Co. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

9/16

Melissa Joves in her sriracha bottle costume. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

10/16

Mini bottles of sriracha were available as swag. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

11/16

Guests could purchase copies of Randy Clemens’ book “The Sriracha Cookbook” and “The Veggie-Lover’s Sriracha Cookbook.” (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

12/16

Sriracha braised and glazed smoked spare rib with sweet and spicy vegetable slaw made by Gabe Bordon of Beachwood. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

13/16

Sriracha glazed pork belly from Bashan. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

14/16

Pineapple citrus, ginger soda with sriracha from Los Angeles Ale Works. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

15/16

A Sriracha cut-out for photo opportunities. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

16/16

Clair Phillips in her Sriracha shirt. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

By Jenn Harris

Oct. 28, 2013 1:21 PM PT

Sriracha lovers united for the first-ever Sriracha Festival on Sunday in downtown Los Angeles. They came in droves with a line wrapping around the long city block outside Lot 163, where participants came armed with cameras, dressed in red T-shirts, and one, wrapped in a full Sriracha bottle costume.

Melissa Joves from Cerritos made her own costume by wearing a red sriracha shirt with a rooster on it, red pants, red tennis shoes and a green hat. Wearing sunglasses and a smile, she peered out of the green head piece and proudly grasped her new copy of “The Veggie Lover’s Sriracha Cookbook.”

“I eat it like it’s the new ketchup,” Joves said of her love of Sriracha. “My friends know I love it and I got so many texts on my phone telling me about the festival.”

Joves and about 800 other Sriracha fans packed the east downtown venue for the festival put on by Food GPS and Randy Clemens, author of “The Sriracha Cookbook.” There was a large outdoor area and two indoor areas, with one sectioned off with picnic benches for VIPs and a DJ. Food vendors made dishes including ice cream and popcorn with the fiery ingredient.

Some of the lines for the food vendors were 20 people deep and by 4 p.m., an hour after the festival started, people were elbow to elbow and it was hard to move around. One of the crowd favorites was a mini pork bun made by Ernesto Uchimura of Plan Check Kitchen & Bar. Uchimura layered a pork belly patty, his famous Sriracha leather, a Sriracha pickle, fried garlic, cilantro and a fish sauce spread on one of his homemade crunch buns. He also draped his Sriracha leather on top of his menu board and piled it high in bowls for people to try by itself.

People also lined up for Neal Fraser (BLD and Fritzi Dog) at his Fritzi Dog booth for a Sriracha-covered dog. Fraser took a Fritzi dog and topped it with Sriracha ketchup and Sriracha potato chips he made by dehydrating Sriracha, pulverizing it, then seasoning fresh chips with the hot sauce crumbs.

For dessert, Tai Kim of Scoops dished out scoops of his coconut lemon grass and burnt sugar ice cream and mango Sriracha sorbet. And for a twist on the classic caramel apple, John Vu Cao and Chloe Tran of East Borough topped theirs with some pink sriracha sea salt.

“I grew up eating Sriracha with apples,” said Tran.

Sriracha even made an appearance in the cocktails. Matthew Biancaniello, the man behind the libations at Plan Check, created a cocktail with natto-infused TRU organic gin, passion fruit, fresh Long Island Cheese pumpkin juice and homemade sriracha and topped with a Chareau aloe liqueur foam. Los Angeles Ale Works made a virgin drink with pineapple citrus ginger soda and Sriracha.

Festival attendee Clair Phillips, who donned a frayed Sriracha shirt, loves what she calls the “cock” sauce, which she named after the rooster on many of the bottles. She dressed up as a Sriracha bottle for Halloween last year and many friends messaged her to tell her about the festival.

“We loved it was the first of its kind, and we’re so happy to be a part of the beginning of it,” said Phillips.

Love to put sriracha on everything...including your breakfast? Me too. Follow me on Twitter: @Jenn_Harris_

ALSO:

Best gyoza? The King of Gyoza at Nikuman-ya (but only on weekends)

Cool photos of miniature people with big food dreams in “Big Appetites”

Why replacing a kid’s Halloween candy with healthy treats is never a good idea