n December 1978, David Tran, then 33, left his home in Vietnam with 100 ounces of gold. Worth $20,000 at the time, or about $90,000 in today’s terms, the precious metal was stashed in cans of condensed milk to evade the attention of Vietnam’s Communist authorities. Tran traveled by freighter to Hong Kong, where he spent eight months at a refugee camp, then moved to Boston for six months before settling in Los Angeles.
Sriracha has become a behemoth without spending a dime on advertising and without raising its wholesale price since the early 1980s. It’s also survived a lawsuit over its factory’s smell and, most recently, a climate-related shortage of chilis last spring that forced Huy Fong to temporarily halt production, causing retail sales to spike as devotees and restaurants stocked up.
"I had no choice,” Tran said in the oral history. “At nighttime, the policeman came and knocked on [my] door.”
I need your biggest help my dear father