- Food Gal - https://www.foodgal.com -

Pomegranate in What? Hot Sauce, Of Course

A Menlo Park couple’s new hot sauce creation with pomegranate.

By day, Menlo Park’s Bobby Marhamat is a branding and mobile marketing expert who guides companies on ways to gain greater exposure and prominence.

In his off hours, he continues his creative tinkering — but in the kitchen, cooking alongside his wife, Shima.

In fact, one of his experiments led to his newest creation this year: Bah Bah Hot Sauce.

Kind of like the chocolate and peanut butter moment with Reese’s, Marhamat wondered what would happen if he added pomegranate, a staple ingredient from his Persian heritage, to hot sauce?

As he discovered, something quite delicious, indeed.

After countless hours of tweaking, they perfected their hot sauce, the name of which appropriately enough means “Mmm, mmm” in Farsi.

Recently, I had a chance to try a sample of the hot sauce, a blend of pomegranate juice, distilled white vinegar, serrano peppers, chipotle peppers, garlic, salt and chili powder.

It’s got a nice kick that is not overpowering. It reminds me a little of sriracha, but with more fruitiness and brightness, and a touch of smokiness. I can imagine it complimenting Asian dumplings, shrimp tacos, grilled chicken or a spicy watermelon salad.

A 5-ounce bottle is $7.99.

Once you open the bottle, it remains shelf-stable. It doesn’t have to be stored in the refrigerator — unless you’re like Marhamat, who enjoys his hot sauce nicely chilled.