Explainer: What Is Fish Sauce, the “Fifth Dimension” of Flavour in Southeast Asian Cuisines

Photo: Ben Siero

Chat Thai’s Palisa Anderson has it on cheesy toast. Anchovy’s Thi Le is making one with single-origin status. Fish sauce is used widely in Southeast Asia – but it’s more than just a proxy for salt. Here’s how to choose, taste and store this pungent and powerful condiment.

A good fish sauce starts with just two ingredients: anchovies and salt.

Over many months (and sometimes years), this powerhouse pairing ferments, yielding a complex liquid whose colour ranges from whisky amber to deep caramel. The flavour is intensely umami: fishy, salty and – if made well – subtly sweet.

“Fish sauce gives a fifth dimension to the saltiness of food,” says Chat Thai restaurateur and organic farmer Palisa Anderson. “The fermentation creates glutamates and mellows the flavour so it’s not a sharp or briny saltiness.”

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Fish sauce is a staple of cooking in Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines and southern China. It’s used extensively in marinades, braises, dipping sauces and on its own as complex seasoning. For the Southeast Asian diaspora, fish sauce defies borders – Anderson puts it in ragu, stews and braises – she even puts it on cheese toast. The seasoning of her Thai childhood meals, fish sauce has a history going back centuries.

“In Thailand, fish sauce is called ‘nam pla’, which translates to fish water,” she says. “Historically, on the coast, fish was cheap and abundant; salt was expensive. There are inland areas in Thailand that use salt to flavour food, but those who lived near the ocean used fish sauce, and those traditions were passed down through families and households.”

In Vietnam, it’s hard to find a dish were nuoc mam (fish sauce) isn’t used.

“Fish sauce is the essence of Vietnamese cooking,” says Thi Le of Melbourne’s pioneering Viet diner Anchovy. “It’s used in practically every dish. In western cooking you use salt. In Vietnam we use fish sauce.”

Anchovy is renowned for its house-made ethos – so it was only a matter of time before Le and co-owner Jia-Yen Lee turned their hands to the restaurant’s namesake. Under The Fish Sauce Project banner, they’ve produced a single-origin fish sauce from 800 kilograms of anchovies caught in Port Phillip Bay.

The project honours tradition in Vietnam and across Southeast Asia, where fish sauce is a hyper local product. (“Anchovies from the closest port, salt from the closest town.”)

“We went out on the boats, caught the fish and salted them right there on the deck,” says Le. “It’s crazy, but I think it captured the moment. Our fish sauce smells like the sea.”

Don’t have access to a bay and a boatload of anchovies? No worries. Here’s how to find and store your favourite fish sauce – because not all fish sauces are created equal.

First Press is best

“First press” is the strongest indication of quality in a fish sauce. First press means the liquid is bottled immediately after the fermentation vessel is drained for the first time, so there’s minimal processing and maximum flavour.

Simple is better

The flavour profile of many common garden fish sauce varieties is bolstered by additives and sugar. As well as first press quality, look for a simple ingredients list of salt and anchovies.

Fish sauce needs friends

Trying fish sauce on its own can be an intense experience. Instead, Anderson suggests putting it on rice with eggs cooked in pork or duck fat. “It’s a good way to highlight the fish sauce and taste it for what it is.”

For Le, vegetables are enough. “When we get a good fish sauce, all you need to do is boil vegetables and dip them in. It showcases the vegetables and it showcases the sauce.”

Forget the fridge

When storing your fish sauce, the fridge is… fine. Ideally, keep it in a cool, dry place like the back of your pantry and use it often. The flavours will deteriorate over a long period of time, but it’s unlikely to spoil in a hurry. The salt makes sure of that.

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