Salty taste of fish sauce

Fish sauce and fish sauce cooked in the traditional way. Photo: MY HANH

Fish sauce has become a famous delicacy, making a name for Western cuisine . The fish sauce flavor lingers in the months of red alluvial water, lingering on every country road, engraved in the mind. Fish sauce hotpot is at the top of the list with simple preparation, rich ingredients, symbolizing the abundance and prosperity of the nature of the river region.

The fish sauce is cooked thoroughly, the bones are removed, and seasoned to taste. The rustic products are put into the hot pot according to the criteria of "cooking whatever is available". The main ingredients can be a few pieces of fatty basa fish, delicious sliced snakehead fish cakes, accompanied by squid, river shrimp, pork belly or a bunch of silver-scaled linh fish... The vegetables for dipping in the hot pot are also diverse, such as water hyacinth flowers, lotus flowers, banana flowers, so dua flowers, dien dien flowers, cu neo, spinach, long beans, eggplant, water mimosa, coconut leaves... Everything is young, fresh, with the original flavor of the countryside.

Fish sauce hotpot with all the delicacies of the West. Photo: MY HANH

People living upstream often take advantage of the fish caught during the flood season to process into food reserves to eat all year round. Ms. Trung Thi Tho, living in Tan An commune, learned from her mother's teachings. In the land of "rice above, fish below", every year her family makes 3-4 jars of linh fish sauce, vinh carp sauce, and snakehead fish sauce. "We make a lot but don't eat much, we mainly give it to relatives and siblings who work or study far from home. My mother prefers homemade food to market food. That habit has been maintained since my sisters and I were young," Ms. Tho shared.

The specialty that Ms. Tho is fond of mentioning is the fermented fish sauce made from Vinh carp, which is not only famous in Tan An but also known in most of the upstream communes. The meat of Vinh carp is fatty and sweet, after processing, the bones of the fish are so soft that they can be eaten. The fermentation time for Vinh carp sauce must be at least half a year to be delicious. Fermented fish sauce is a name that has existed since ancient times, in which "fermented" is the way to mix palm sugar, rice wine, and rice powder with fish. The recipe has rice wine in a secret ratio of each family, creating the delicious flavor of the sauce that is unmistakable. The fried fish sauce gives off a rich, fragrant aroma.

Not only Ms. Tho's family, many households also have the habit of making fish sauce themselves. Mr. Tran Van Nhanh's family, residing in An Phu commune, relies on fish sauce making for a living, continuing the profession through 3 generations, preserving the traditional flavor. Mr. Nhanh said that compared to the past, making fish sauce now has many supporting machines, but mainly the secondary steps such as scaling fish, packaging finished products, and printing labels. The main steps in the fish sauce making process are still done by hand. Every year during the flood season, his family buys a large amount of freshwater fish to salt, marinate with rice bran for 3-4 months, then ferment with sugar to create the finished product. His fish sauce making workshop is always clean, neat, and has a strong, characteristic fish sauce aroma. Beyond the village, the fish sauces that Mr. Nhanh's family cans, packages, and makes according to customers' requests are consumed in many provinces and cities.

Products and dishes of the flood season are familiar, attractive, and endless topics. In the West, when talking about fish, there must be fish sauce, because the fish makes the fish sauce. Not only in the flood season, delicious dishes made from fish sauce are always worthy of being mentioned to be used all year round. Eating them during family reunion meals warms the stomach, and cooking them to entertain guests shows the kindness of the host.

If you ask someone what they miss and crave when they are far from home, they will definitely be the familiar delicacies of their homeland. The dishes are rich in aroma and flavor, not expensive delicacies, but linger in the mind.

MY HANH

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/man-moi-vi-mam-a462052.html