5 Things you didn't know about Srirracha

Hubby's ketchup 

You pass it in the grocery store and see it at restaurants all the time. You might not be able to read all the words on the bottle, but you know what's in it: Sriracha.

The hot sauce in the clear bottle with the rooster on the side is incredibly popular. Quartz recently profiled Huy Fong's founder, David Tran, and learned that Tran is a bit of an accidental entrepreneur. 

Tran, 68, founded Huy Fong 33 years ago with no intention of it going global. Quartz reported that he simply wanted to give Vietnamese immigrants "a hot sauce worthy of their pho soup."

He did, and then some. Last year, the company racked up $60 million in sales and posted a double-digit sales growth percentage. He told Quartz that he has never once raised the wholesale price,despite inflation having more than tripled the price of food since 1980.

Oh, and Tran doesn't advertise.

Below, five things you may not have known about Tran and his creation.

1. Why the rooster? According to a New York Times article, Tran chose the rooster as the sauce's logo because it is his astrological sign in the Chinese zodiac.

2. Why is it so good? A question that would no doubt flatter Tran, who, according to Quartz, loves reading fan mail. The answer, according to the company's official site, is a bit of letdown, though: High quality ingredients.

3. And how do you pronounce it? It's pronounced, SIR-rotch-ah, according to Thrillist. The term is a generic one (like ketchup or mustard), named for the Vietnamese town where it was supposedly created.  Huy Fong, by the way, was the name of the ship that Tran came to the U.S. on.

4. Is it true there's a documentary in the works? Glad you asked. It is true. The project was funded via Kickstarter and is set to hit film festivals this fall. Filmmaker Griffin Hammond calls it "an anthem for sriracha lovers."

5. It's been to space. A photo from a 2003 mission aboard the International Space Station features two astronauts, Yuri I. Malenchenko and Edward T. Lu. See the bottle with the green cap floating by? That's the real stuff. Take that, imitators.