Pronounce this sentence out loud: "There may be a schism about this, but my forte is not to err; people are pronouncing 'Sriracha' incorrectly."
If you said skism, for-tay and urr, you're right, and you probably correct people or silently judge them. "Err" is one of those words that makes you sound like a moron if you say it right; people think it's derived from "error," when it really comes from the Ole English uyr, meaning "to fall on one's face into a dung heap." (Note: If you believed that, you urred.) But you got Sriracha right, right? Sree-racha.
No. It's See-rah-cha. The first R is silent. You may ask: Why is it there, then? Am I mispronouncing other foods that have Rs in them? Hand me some ed seedless gapes, please. No adishes, but I will try some of that utabaga ganish.
I don't know why the R is silent. Perhaps it's on advice from its attorney. But it's one of those words that people think sound a certain way, and so you sound dumb when you're right.
This doesn't matter, though. We're entering the last stage of Sriracha's reign as the hip thing to know about.
I used to call it Rooster Sauce, based on the label. Found it at a Vietnamese restaurant; put some on my noodles-and-fried-Spam dish. It was so incredible I rose, paid my bill, drove home, poured out all the Tabasco I had, drove to the store, bought more Tabasco, poured it out, then went back to buy Rooster Sauce. I put it on everything, because I have a palate as nuanced as a catcher's mitt and a searing dab of Sriracha is the only way I know I'm alive.
What makes us think that its hip factor is peaking? Because all the big brands are scrambling to get on board.
Heinz brought out Sriracha ketchup, which seemed like an admission of defeat: "Yeah, yeah, we hear you, our stuff doesn't taste like anything, you miserable hipsters. Here. Hate on this." It wasn't very good, and I spent five minutes blurting it out into the sink because the bottle had to be recycled or six polar bears would drown cursing my name. Sriracha is a ketchup replacement. It cannot augment ketchup, any more than you can have mustard-flavored horseradish. No one thinks, "I'd love Sriracha flavoring on my hamburger, but could someone dilute it ahead of time? Thanks!"