One of the great, albeit fattening, experiences of Key West is a trip to 729 Thomas Street’s famous Blue Heaven Restaurant. Flanked by a gate, a bar, a gift store, and leafy almond trees, this outdoor café provides ambiance in the form of music, roaming poultry and a gourmet menu.
The staff is old school Key West: Struggling artists and musicians. One, Michael Dixon, plays acoustic guitar in The Michael Dixon Band. As a waiter, Michael is also exceptional. He often concocts original recipes on the spot to suit customer requests. One simple recipe, Michael’s Dixie Sauce, was created as a substitute for Tabasco.
The sauce is a combination of three ingredients, mixed to taste. One ingredient is simple, two are exotic. These are:
- Pataks Mild Curry Paste
- Srivacha Sauce
- Honey.
Pataks Mild Curry Paste is a combination of cilantro (coriander), cumin, turmeric, chili powder, ginger, garlic, tamarind and other spices. An authentic Indian staple, it is used most often with meat, chicken or fish. At Blue Heaven, Michael offers the sauce with omelets.
According to Pataks Curry Sauce Review, in 1956 Patak's was founded when the father of the current CEO peddled curry puffs from his house in North London. Today, Patak'sexports to over 45 countries, including Australia, North America, Germany, Italy, France and Spain. They also market chutney and pickles.
Srivacha Sauce is a mild to hot chili sauce, which, although gourmet, is used in a similar way to ketchup on everything from meats to chips to vegetables; it is made from chilies and ground with crushed garlic. Although it is touted as a Thai or a Vietnamese sauce, it is actually an American sauce or “a polyglot purée with roots in different places and peoples,” according to an article in The New York Times, “A Chili Sauce to Crow About,” by John Edge in May of 2009.
Manufactured by Huy Fong Foods, Srivacha sauce was invented by David Tran, a Chinese man born and raised in Viet Nam. According to a recent interview with Edge, Tran made the sauce for the Asian community. Since then, its appeal has been multi-cultural. Even Applebee’s, a bastion of potato skins and buffalo wings, has begun serving fried shrimp with a mix of mayonnaise and Huy Fong sriracha.
On the rich cheese omelets at Blue Heaven Restaurant in Key West, a musician serves his Dixie Sauce as a tangy compliment to an epicurean fantasy. Make sure he serves plenty of ice water, too. The sauce is deceptively mild at first bite. Then it warms the palate like the hot licks of Michael Dixon's Band.
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