I'm out of the game on the boutique hot sauces. I'll eat them when someone gives me some (I tend to get gift sets at Christmas sometimes). I just cant bring myself to pay the money for some of those, so I stick to what I know usually.
My standard go to is Texas Pete, but it's really not much different than Crystal, Louisiana, Tapatio and Cholula in my opinion. Not a side by side taste test, but out in restaurants they all seem to hit the same or similar notes for me. Well balanced, not too hot and not a bunch of competing spices.
Beyond Texas Pete, in my fridge (yes I'm a hot sauce refrigerator) I also keep:
-Franks wing sauce (because I find it to be real close to the Alton Brown's recipe for Buffalo wing sauce I've used for years. Just makes it easy-button to pour it out of the bottle). I used to use franks regular on various Tex/Mex stuff but not so much anymore.
-Sriracha= for very specific things, not always Asian, I actually like in on the Sam's 5 bean salad we keep on hand (Paisley Farm)
-Tabasco=another one for very specific uses like bloody Mary's and cocktail sauce.
For green sauces, a couple I have been keeping handy lately are:
Herdez Avocado Hot sauce= This is now one of our go-to's for tex/mex stuff like quesadillas. It's no joke on spice level but not murder either.
And Green Sriracha. Picked this up at the Asian market. It goes very good on just about everything, more than regular sriracha for me. I keep forgetting I have it though for some reason.
