Necessary Hot Sauce, Part Two: Secret Aardvark

Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don't. Sometimes, when you're staring at standard breakfast fare with a bloody mary in hand, you need seductive heat. That sad looking bottle of green Tabasco with crusty residue under the cap isn't going to whisper in your ear.

That crap may look good at 2am, but there's an odd squeeze bottle of Secret Aardvark on the table and there's really no reason to slum it today. Not when you get sweet hotness of habenero, enhanced with the flavors of carrot, roasted tomato, onion and spices.

It's unusual, and probably the only habenero sauce I can think of to encroach on condiment status. I've had it in bloody marys, mixed in yogurt or guacamole dips, on flatiron steak, on fish tacos, and other fare. It may be the most versatile hot sauce in my stable. Yeah, so I have a "stable" of hot sauce, piss off.

Not only is it so damn good, it's local with a snowball of a cult following around here. Their amazing, drunken black bean sauce might also deserve cult status (marinate and bake some chicken hindquarters and you'll understand).

Get it. Find it at New Seasons, Zupans, or any Portland breakfast joint worth its salt.