A couple of years ago, I found out about Lao Gan Ma Spicy Chili Crisp. A crunch, oil, and a little spiciness. I dubbed it ‘Love Sludge’ – it was so good that I evangelized it to all my friends. Since then, the enamor has most certainly worn off. I don’t know if they changed the recipe, but the last couple of times I’ve gotten some, it’s ended up in the bin, not completely used. Well, I thought a list of alternatives to Lao Gan Ma that are out there that not everyone’s heard of (nor I myself) would be neat. So, I started sending a few emails, asking for samples, and here’s The Ramen Rater’s Chili Crisp Roundup & Buyer’s Guide. I figure 14 varieties is more than enough to show a landscape of flavor and textures that are out in the wild – and I’m sure there are many more. With holidays coming up, if you’ve got a ramen junkie or chilehead to get something for, there’s a lot of different things here that will work that they might not have tried. These are in order of when I received/bought them. Each one has a link to where you can get them. If I end up with more, I will be happy to add them at the bottom. With that, let’s get oily!
Tag: barnacle foods
Barnacle Foods Sends Unique Kelp Chili Crisp From Alaska!
A few redditors mentioned a few chili crisps they thought should be on my Chili Crisp Roundup post and so I reached out and Barnacle Foods’ Kelp Chili Crisp was one of them. You can get it here. As of publishing this, I haven’t tried it yet, but soon it will be on that roundup post, as well as tried with different ramen! This one sounded particularly interesting as many acquaintances over the years from my hometown of Anacortes would head up to Alaksa to do commercial fishing. I also played with kelp when I was a kid on the shore – yeah we didn’t have a whole lot to do.Maybe your ramen junkie friend would like this for the holidays? Check out the vid and a big thanks to Barnacle Foods for sending it along!