October 17th, 2005 by Jemaleddin Cole

First things first: buy your­self some Pico Pica imme­di­ately. Then buy me some for rec­om­mend­ing it.

Sec­ondly, this is not salsa. I cannot empha­size this enough. Every time I start talk­ing about how much I love my Pico Pica, people try dip­ping chips in it. It’s not dip, dammit, it’s a condi­ment. Think of it as a replace­ment for Tabasco or Crys­tal, but with a deep, com­plex flavor and no vine­gary smell or taste. It’s got heat, but the heat is second to the flavor.

This is the sauce I grew up on. My par­ents, because they love me so much started putting this stuff on my food when I was a year old. I put it on eggs, I put it in Chili, I put it on tacos and bur­ri­tos and enchi­ladas and any­thing else I want to improve. The com­pany rec­om­mends it on steak, and while I wouldn’t go pour­ing it on a porter­house, it’s pretty good on carne asada.

I wish that I could invent some kind of internet-​based scratch and lick that would let you taste this stuff. But hon­estly, that would be too cruel: you’d end up spend­ing the whole time you were wait­ing for it to arrive lick­ing your monitor.

Me, I’m nurs­ing my last quar­ter of a bottle and curs­ing myself for blow­ing my allowance on get­ting my win­dows tinted. Stupid win­dows! You are fla­vor­less and uninteresting!

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4 Responses to “Pico Pica: World’s Greatest Hot Sauce”

  1. Agree! This is the most authen­tic mex­i­can hot sauce I have ever had and I often buy many bot­tles of it to bring back home when I travel thru Cal­i­for­nia. I have not seen it sold in Florida, cur­rently I am in Japan, so I order it over the net.

    The Best!

    — Greg September 11th, 2006 at 1:00 am #

  2. I also agree and I use so much of it, I have been buying it in the gallon con­tain­ers when I can find it. My local Smart and Final store refuses to carry the gallon sizes for me any­more so I’m still look­ing for another place that will. Any help would be greatly appre­ci­ated.

    — Gary Jennings November 14th, 2006 at 4:54 pm #

  3. I have been using this stuff since I was 9 years old. My dad and brother used it in instant noo­dles. Even­tu­ally my mother devised a recipe for steak sauce out of it that simply cannot be beaten. An un named pro­fes­sional chef offered 3 dif­fer­ent per­sonal recipes of his for it. Did anyone notice that for a brief period in 2005 they changed the recipe and added “distilled vinegar” to it? Absolutely the worst idea ever! I was so dev­as­tated that I per­son­ally wrote Juanita’s Foods located in Harbor City, next to the city I live in (Long Beach) and com­plained to the Direc­tor of research and mar­ket­ing. I demanded an explaina­tion as to why they would change some­thing that was seem­ingly unmatched in taste and qual­ity. He was extremely polite and recep­tive to my com­ments, and assured me that the old recipe was making a come­back. Soon after I went to the local gro­cery and dis­cov­ered that it had been changed back! I was so happy that I pur­chased every last bottle they had on the shelf. I still have the “new” recipe at home with the vine­gar, it’s still full……Thank you, Juanita’s foods for answer­ing my prayers =D

    — Alan Chau April 9th, 2007 at 6:12 pm #

  4. I too grew up with Pico Pica and it is (except for my own recipes, “cough”) the best. But I take excep­tion when you say “Every time I start talk­ing about how much I love my Pico Pica, people try dip­ping chips in it. It’s not dip, dammit, it’s a condiment” Go into any restau­rant in Mexico or for that matter any authen­tic Mex­i­can restau­rant any­where and you will find a pepper sauce with chips not often a salsa being served to you before your meal gets to your table.
    My excur­sions into culi­nary Mex­i­can vil­lages began it the 1960’s (Yes I’m a moldy) and still con­tinue to this day.

    — Sudsy July 12th, 2007 at 9:24 pm #