Every time my maternal grandparents' house was treating fish, the atmosphere in the countryside became bustling, relatives came to work together, sisters gathered to prepare fish. Every time, during each treatment, my maternal grandmother and mother would stay home to sort the fish. She would choose the big fish to sell at the market, such as catfish, barramundi, and catfish, and the rest would be dried and made into fish sauce.

For making fish sauce in the house, my grandfather is the main worker, from the initial processing to salting, mixing rice bran... My grandfather is very skillful, the fish sauce is stacked layer by layer. While working, my grandfather said: "Seeing that you guys like to eat, when it is ready, I scoop it into small jars, take it away and put it in the refrigerator to eat gradually."

After fermenting the fish sauce, put it in a jar and wait for more than 4 months to have the finished product. When my grandmother took out the fish sauce, the aroma wafted out, and every fish looked so delicious that I wanted to eat it right away. The fish sauce my grandmother made was just the right sourness, and everyone who came to visit praised the fragrant fish sauce.

Grandma said: “In the past, there were a lot of fish in this land, countless freshwater fish. Every time we drained the pond, there were perch, snakehead fish, and giant catfish that we couldn’t eat all, so my grandmother made fish sauce for the neighbors. The fish sauce was used to braise fish and make a delicious dipping sauce for boiled vegetables.”

Every time I came back, my mother went to the market to buy noodles and other ingredients, then went to my grandparents' house to take out the fish sauce and bring it back to cook noodle soup for the whole family to eat. My father was in charge of setting up the nets, also for catfish the size of a hand; my two younger siblings went to the garden to pick banana stems, adding water spinach and herbs that my mother grew. So we had a genuine country noodle soup, simple but delicious beyond compare.

The aroma of the broth spreads out, along with the irresistible fatty fish meat. The fish meat is separated into strands, dipped in fish sauce with a little chili, blending the flavor of the broth with all the garden vegetables, a meal that is unforgettable.

My grandmother often prepared several jars of fish sauce and sent them to Ca Mau for me to eat gradually. I rarely cook noodle soup, but instead make steamed fish sauce to eat with rice for convenience. The method is simple, mince raw fish sauce with pork, mix with eggs, add spices in the traditional way and then steam. Make about 3 bowls at a time, if you can't finish it, put it in the refrigerator. Every time I make steamed fish sauce, the whole boarding house is bustling with the attractive smell of fish sauce. Steamed fish sauce is eaten with rice, with raw vegetables, cucumber, pineapple, eggplant, ginger, green banana...

The fish sauce dish is rich in the flavor of the homeland.

I remember my grandmother's raw fish sauce in the past. When I was little, I had nothing to eat at noon so I went to the kitchen behind the house to find cold rice and ate it with raw fish sauce. The delicious feeling was indescribable. To me, the rustic flavor of fish sauce was even more delicious than the elaborate dishes in fancy restaurants...

Nhat Minh

Source: https://baocamau.vn/nho-dong-a2093.html