Fish Sauce

[simcooks]

What is fish sauce and when (in what kind of recipes) do you use it?

[Paprika]

It can be used alot in asian cooking and stirfries. The ingredients vary from brand to brand though. Some contain prawns and other seafoods not just fish!

[cinnamon]

Surprisingly, I'm making some Pho Soup right now, and fish sauce is one of the principal flavors of the soup. I'm not Asian, but I've heard from a Vietnamese friend that it's made by placing cooked fish in a strainer and catching the juices as they drip out. She also told me that the smellier the fish sauce the more it costs. So I buy the cheap ones At a local Pho Soup restaurant, the owner told me his was better then the one from the restaurant across the street, so is that because of the fish sauce he uses? The ingredients as so very simple, that makes the fish sauce come to mind.

I have a bottle labeled:

Nuoc Mam Nhi
Thuong Hang
Viet Nam
Shrimp and Crab Brand
Premium Quality
Fish Sauce

that's made in Thailand. The ingredients say Anchovy Extract, Water, Salt, Fructose & Hydrolysed Wheat Protein.

[pinklife]

Aside from sweets, I crave for sauces too. I like our native fish sauce. It saturates the taste of the food. Pair with almost all meal (except sweets), it taste so good.

[simcooks]

I finally bought myself a bottle of fish sauce because a couple of new recipes I wanted to try called for it. I browsed through the fish sauce bottles in the supermarket and most of them said "Anchovy extract" as the main ingredient.

Anyway, I made Tom Yum Soup and Fish Cake in Banana Leaves with fish sauce as an ingredient.

Fish sauce is very salty, so I can't use too much of it. I checked with another friend and she said she uses fish sauce in a Thai salad that she makes. I am getting the recipe from her!

Thanks for your help!

[pinkperson]

Fish sauce is the salty and smelly brown liquid made from fish. This is well-loved here in our country. It is used like salt and soy sauce. Good-quality fish sauce imparts special aroma and flavor to food. Even a simple fried fish can taste so good when you dip it in fish sauce with red hot chili peppers.