Vietnamese dipping sauce (Nuoc cham) (my recipe!).Here are just a few common Vietnamese dishes featuring fish sauce as a primary ingredient: Used in both cooking as the main source of salt and as a dipping condiment, there are few dishes that exist without it. Nuoc mam, as its known in Vietnamese, is the fundamental building block of Vietnamese cuisine. In Viet Nam Culture Foundation, Trần Ngọc Thêm wrote, “For Vietnamese people, a meal without fish sauce is considered incomplete.” It is so prevalent in Vietnamese cuisine that you will find a small bottle of fish sauce on every dining table in place of table salt. Let’s take a look at different ways that it’s used in different cuisines. If you’ve had pad thai, pho, egg rolls or vermicelli noodle salad, you’ve definitely had fish sauce in some form or another. Whether its used straight from the bottle for cooking or mixed with other ingredients to make different dipping sauces, its usage varies between different countries. In other words, it’s akin to salt in the American kitchen. It’s as essential to Vietnamese and Thai cuisine as soy sauce is to northern neighbors China, Japan and Korea. You’ll find different versions in Indonesia, Burma, Cambodia, The Philippines, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. Though it was originally invented in China 2300 years ago, fish sauce traveled south and evolved to become more of a staple in southeast Asian countries. BLiS Barrel Aged Fish Sauce – Fresh black anchovy, sea salt.Golden Boy Brand Fish Sauce – Anchovies, salt and sugar.Vegan Fysh Sauce – Organic seaweed, pineapple extract, rice wine, vinegar and other ingredients.Thai Kitchen Sauce Fish – Anchovy extract, salt, sugar.Three Crabs Brand Fish Sauce – Anchovy extract, water, salt, fructose and hydrolysed vegetable protein.“Flying Lion” Vietnamese-Style Fish Sauce – Anchovy extract, water, salt, fructose and hydrolysed vegetable protein.Premium Anchovy Fish Sauce Gold – Anchovies, sea salt.Red Boat Premium Fish Sauce – Anchovies, sea salt.Here is a list of popular brands and their ingredients: The exception is of course is the vegetarian substitute, which replaces anchovies altogether. Lower-quality products contain more fillers or enhancements like water, sugar or other flavorings. Raw types are processed at room temperature, maintaining all of its enzymes and omega-3 fatty acids.Īs the story goes with mass-produced products, companies start to stray from the original formulation as they aim to cut costs. It can take months or up to two years to completely ferment. Natural bacteria then breaks down the fish with magical alchemy (aka fermentation), transforming it into a super funky, briny liquid. Traditionally, anchovies are crusted in sea salt and packed in barrels where they are left to ferment. In its purest form, modern fish sauce consists of anchovies and sea salt as the only ingredients. From anything to potatas bravas, salsa verde, poblano sauce, barbeque or even bloody mary cocktails, its power to transform flavor is too much to resist for anyone who’s in-the-know.įor examples of recipes where fish sauce is prominently used, check out my recipes for egg rolls, and the noodle bowl like bun thit nuong. Chefs in Spanish, Mexican and American restaurants have experimented with fish sauce for its umami superpowers.
Luckily for us, American home cooks and culinary experts are waking up to the revelatory flavor-enhancing qualities of fish sauce. Like a lot of Asian foods in America, this potent flavor powerhouse suffers from the unfortunate stigma of “fishiness.” Just imagine if it was called “magical umami liquid gold,” because that is precisely what it is that for the greater part of southeast Asia! A spilled bottle will undoubtedly leave a very stinky lasting impression. It’s an incredibly pungent, fishy concentrated liquid that even southeast Asian cooks knowingly handle with caution. The mere mention of this stuff strikes fear in the hearts of many.
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