Thai chili sauce

The other night I made steak in a marinade of ginger, garlic, soy sauce and Thai chili sauce. My teenage son liked it, but he asked me, "Didn't you use a different Thai chili sauce last time you made something like this?"

Um, I had, yes. About three months ago. And as he duly noted, the other Thai chili sauce was sweeter than this one.

But can I just say that I am amazed that a kid can have a memory for Thai chili sauce that allows him to distinguish between two types, each of which he has only tasted once, three months apart?

When I was his age, I liked ... Yodels. And I thought putting soy sauce on broccoli was really exotic.

And the only place you could get Thai chili sauce was in Thailand.

And I had never met anyone who had been there, and didn't imagine that I ever would.

When I was his age, it was a big deal taking the subway from Manhattan to the Bronx, for God's sake.

And it sort of still is.