12/13/2023 0 Comments Fish sauce![]() ![]() In his piece about fish sauce in the ancient world, Declan Henesy notes: Some of the fish sauce available at a Thai supermarket - there were many more! The many mentions in ancient texts and cookbooks implies a quotidian use within the ancient Mediterranean footprint. Pompeii was famous in ancient times for its production of garum. Roman fish sauce was used in a variety of recipes, like those from Apicus’s cookbook De Re Coquinaria – available for free online – as well as a general substitute for salt and a base for sauces. Italian archaeologist Claudio Giardino notes that garum was mentioned in Roman literature all the way back to the 4th century BC, and that remains of garum factories have been excavated in Spain, Portugal and Northern Africa. The earliest origins of fish sauce date back to Green and Roman times, where the condiment was known as gàros or garum respectively. Once liquid begins to seep out of the fish, it is drained and reintroduced to the vat for the full fermentation process, which lasts “ long enough for it to reach concentration, but not long enough for hydro-sulfuric acid to appear, which would spoil the taste.” Usually this process takes nine months to one year, with the vats sitting in the sun as the fish sauce takes form. Both are placed into huge vats – usually three parts fish to one part salt – and weighted down to prevent the fish from floating to the surface as fermentation begins. Despite the fact that some fish sauce labels depict squid, shrimp, or even a man carrying a giant shrimp over his shoulder (my favourite, for obvious reasons), the ingredients remain the same: fish and salt. In it purest form, the sauce is made from two ingredients: fish (usually anchovies) and salt, fermented together for months. “This is more than just a condiment,” founder of Red Boat fish sauce, Cuong Pham, has said. Street side banh cuon with fish sauce for dipping. To my taste buds, it is as evocative of my years in Southeast Asia as lime, garlic and chilies. It has become my first ingredient of choice in a new city, something I use in homemade soups and curries, chicken marinates and salads, and even omelettes, adding a taste of Vietnam to my meal. Used in Thailand as nam pla and Myanmar as ngan bya yay, as well as Laos, Cambodia, and the Philippines under other local names and variations, one thing is certain regardless of preference: fish sauce plays a crucial role in flavouring food in Southeast Asia. Its lingering smell leaves no mystery about its strong, fishy contents. In my travels, I’ve heard others cite fish sauce as one of those tastes that takes some getting used to for Western palates, along with stinky tofu and durian fruit, and the bright purple fermented shrimp paste that accompanies Vietnamese bun rieu soup. While we travel for the people and the culture, for the stories and the food, we sometimes take the origins of individual ingredients, like fish sauce or chili peppers, for granted.What about Asia’s modern day fish sauce? Is it the same as Roman garum?.Fish sauce packets, ready to be consumed. Each symmetrical package took only three seconds to make, and then waited to be added to a takeaway meal. ![]() ![]() Nuoc cham, or pure fish sauce, nuoc mam, accompanies many Southern Vietnamese dishes, and fish sauce is consumed by 95% of Vietnamese households.īut his motions – pouring the fishy liquid into tiny plastic bags, delicately deploying slender sliced carrots into the mix, and then elegantly curling his wrist for three turns of an elastic band – were mesmerizing. What he was doing happens all over the city at street stalls and restaurants. He was also adding thin slivers of pickled carrots to the tiny bags that piled in front of him. It was only when I was directly in front of the Saigon street stall that I realized what was unfolding: the owner, a smiling man in his 40s who always greeted me as I walked by, was packaging nuoc cham, a condiment made from fish sauce, water, lime juice, and sugar. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something twisting and turning, rhythmic and precise. ![]()
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