Friday the 13th Favorite Food Freakout!

Rachel Tepper Paley
·Editor
Updated
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We’re not usually superstitious types, but this week has not been a good one for some of our most beloved foods—and it has us freaked out.

Seriously, did we pass a black cat or break a mirror on our way into work? Did we walk under a ladder? Open an umbrella indoors?

We’re being a bit melodramatic, but something is up. Here’s our evidence:

Exhibit A: The sriracha shutdown is definitely happening.

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Pandemonium over the looming sriracha shortage has hit full tilt now that California is actually holding up shipments of the stuff. We know we told you not to panic, but it might be time to start panicking. Our faces look like this right now.

On the upside, there’s currently a new sriracha documentary out. Hey, even if we can’t drizzle the condiment over everything in sight, at least we can still watch this gif and weep silently to ourselves. Right?

Exhibit B: A barrel shortage is messing with our beloved bourbon.

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First there was a Buffalo Trace shortage earlier this year. That was hard enough to take. Now we hear there’s a shortage of white oak lumber, the wood required to make the barrels in which bourbon is aged. It’s already affected Four Roses bourbon; the operation was forced to shut down its facilities through the end of the year.

Our nerves are frayed. Quick, someone grab us some bourbon. OH WAIT THERE’S A SHORTAGE AND MAYBE THEY CAN’T AND AHHHHHHH.

Exhibit C: A disease is killing off shrimp worldwide.

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Researchers at the University of Arizona recently discovered that a disease called Early Mortality Syndrome is picking off crustaceans at some of the world’s largest shrimp farms. That means fewer shrimp and higher prices.

Not the shrimps! Anything but the shrimps! What would we do without shrimp cocktail? And shrimp tacos? And shrimp and grits? Shrimp are the best, guys.

Don’t mind us, we’re just curled in the fetal position in a dark corner with a blanket over our heads. Call us when it’s tomorrow.