Someone wrote me recently saying that she loves Ling Ling Dipping Sauce, yet it’s no longer being sold by the bottle. She asked if I or readers could recommend another similar dipping sauce?

I said fine, I know what it’s like to have a favorite item be discontinued (I’m still upset with you, Sephora!) so let me pick up a bag of dumplings and bottle of dumpling sauce, eat a dozen of the dumplings with the sauce, tell everyone what I thought of the two things, and ask for dumpling sauce recommendations.

This is what I came up with, a bag of Vegetable, Pork, and Leek Dumplings.

And a bottle of Taiwanese dumpling sauce.

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There is one surefire thing that sets me in a slight panic, and that is being asked to participate in a potluck. See, I’m definitely an eater, but I’m not much of a uh, cooker. And the thought of someone, other than a small group of relatives and friends, eating my cooking sets my heart racing, and not in a good way. But Internet, I don’t know what it is about you. You’ve got me telling you things I’ve told few, if any, others.

But rather than just confessing another bit of nonsense to you today (wait, I just did that), I’m going to show you something I’ve never showed anyone before—a photo I took…of something I cooked. Gulp.

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Like salt, sugar, and butter, Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce makes a lot of things better. I like to add a few squirts of it to pho (Vietnamese rice-noodle soup), fried rice, and fried noodles.

When I want a sauce with texture and to increase the tongue-burning factor, I grab Sambal Oelek Ground Fresh Chili Paste.

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