Elements /One ingredient, one dish
Straight from the bottle, fish sauce is not for the squeamish. It smells like you’d expect fermented anchovy juice to smell, a powerfully funky odor that can clear a room. Those not familiar with its uses in Thai, Filipino or Vietnamese cuisine may be surprised that it’s for cooking. Open a bottle and those in the kitchen may suggest burying it in the backyard instead.
But the stank is a small price to pay for the results. Feed people— even children —fish sauce before they know it, and you’ll have requests for more.
That’s because once it’s blended with other ingredients in a dipping sauce or salad dressing, or added to a ginger-caramel braising bath for pork riblets or catfish, the funk is toned way down, and the flavor cranks up. It adds not only salt but richness, a savory fullness the Japanese call “umami.”
In Southeast Asia, tiny fish have been packed in salt by the barrel-full, and left to ferment in the sun. The resulting liquid is filtered, diluted and bottled. Its high protein content and preservability make fish sauce and rice a common subsistence meal. But fish sauce is finding adherents outside of ethnic specialties for its supporting role. It’s added to beef stew or chicken broth, and can stand in for anchovies used as flavoring in Italian dishes.
Romanroots: Fish sauce has been made since the times of Nero, when it was called garum, and lauded as the supreme condiment in Roman cuisine. The best, historians have noted, was as expensive as fine perfume.
Bottlebuffer: Andrea Nguyen, author of “Into the Vietnamese Kitchen,” suggests making sure the bottle remains upright when you bring your groceries home from the store. They’re seldom well-sealed, she says, and you do not want it leaking in your trunk.
Here fish sauce and lime juice powers the dressing for an American take on Thai beef salad, yum nua. Once you’ve made the lime dressing, the variety of crunchy salad vegetables is up to you. Shredded carrot, red or daikon radishes and blanched green beans would all fit in well. Add the minced chiles and the lemongrass or garlic for a more robust, authentic version.
Watch Andrew prepare Thai beef salad
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