With a long coastline and numerous bodies of water, Vietnam is rich in both seafood and salt – substances that are essential to people’s diets. In Vietnam seafood and salt are used to create a condiment that is consumed at almost every meal: nước mắm (fish sauce) and salted fish…
Different regions produce different varieties of “mắm”. In the North, along with tiny slated eggplants, people often eat steamed rice with mam made of tiny aquatic creature fished out of flooded paddy field. Varieties include Tinh Gia shrimp sauce from Thanh Hoa province; Gia Vien shrimp sauce from Ninh Binh province; Tien Lang rag-worm sauce from Hai Phong province; and Hoanh Nha crab sauce from Nam Dinh province. In Central Vietnam, the city of Hue produces mam made from krill shrimp. On the other side of the Hai Van Pass in Quang Ngai province, people make mắm nhum out of sea urchins. Binh Dinh province meanwhile is known for its fine mackerel fish sauce. With its wealth of seafood southern Vietnam is paradise for diners who love “mam”. The delta province of Chau Doc is known for its “mắm thái”. Residents of Ca Mau use fiddler crabs to produce “mắm ba khía”. Can Giuoc produces mam cong from another species of small crab. And Go Cong is famous for its mam tom cha shrimp sauce.
Different types of fish sauce are made at different times of year. In Northern Viet Nam ragworm sauce is typically produced from late September to early October. Binh Dinh mackerel sauce is produced during fishing season from February to May. Following the Lunar New Year, when the swamps dry up, southern people catch “linh” fish and make fish sauce. The krill shrimp sauce season runs from January to April, when krill shrimp breed.
Fish sauce is eaten throughout Vietnam. It is used as a flavoring, a condiment and to preserve food. Many popular dishes require fish sauce. Hue beef vermicelli is flavored with krill shrimp sauce. Bacon and raw vegetables are dipped into sour shrimp sauce. Boiled sweet potato buds are flavored with sauce made from field crabs. Ragworm sauce mixed with mandarin orange peels is eaten with boiled pis’s trotters. Lotus stems are served with braised fish sauce. Green bananas, green starfruit, boiled pork, rice pancake and herbs are dipped into mackerel sauce. The list of recipes that call for “mắm” is endless.
A popular verse from the central city of Hue proclaims:
“Don’t say shrimp sauce has a bad smell.
Without it, the meal is incomplete”.
The former royal city of Hue produces many types of mắm. Each season brings another type. The variety is astounding. Residents of this regions, which is rich in seafood, produce salty, sweet and sour fish sauces using products like tuna, flying fish, dzut (tiny field shrimp), cong(tiny crab) and so (shellfish). Thanks to the city’s strong Buddhist influence, Hue women are also skilled in making vegetarian dishes. Varieties include “mắm rỏi” (vegetable fish sauce), mắm cà (eggplant fish sauce) and “mắm dzuốt” (picked fish sauce). Common ingredients include melons, carrots, turnips, jackfruit fibers, galingale, red peppers, dried tofu, fried rice flour.
Fish sauce is very healthy. An old saying states that: “Eat rice with fish sauce, one will look fine and healthy”. There are many folk poems and tales relating to fish sauce. One old story concerns a special sauce called “mắm ngự” (king’s fish sauce) that was reserved for the royal family. Sea urchins, ragworm, shrimp and anchovies are all suggested ingredients, but nobody is certain of the recipe for “mắm ngự”.
While this royal recipe has been lost, Vietnam continues to produce plenty of delicious types of fish sauce. As this ancient verse reminds us, no meal is complete without it:
“The fish sauce has run out so I must go out to catch fish.
After three years, when the fish sauce is ready, I will invite you to lunch…”
After the war of 1975 southwestern locals enjoyed traditional food by modifying the mắm’s plate to become a different taste – hot pot with fermented salted fish. A plate that all southern families enjoyed even today in oversea. What make salted fish in hot pot special is the varieties of vegetables served with the plate. Originally this plate came from Ninh Kieu’warf in Can Tho province- capital of southern Vietnam. Then local Vietnamese modified its recipe from time-to-time to transform it into a hot pot called salted fish in hot pot which become a food reflecting culinary culture. That transformation stems from the abundance of “the Southern Provinces” which is famous for its boundless rivers and interlacing rivulets. Over 400 Km of seashores, some 14,000 Km of rivers, thousands of km of rivulets, several of green islets floating on the water and nine estuaries like nine mouths of the dragon keeping on impetuously pouring water into the sea make it convenient for row-boat-combined with pleasure boat tours penetrating deep to the rivulet network. For Can Tho style salted fish hot pot, it is fashionable for diners to consume with a dozen of rural herbs and vegetables like kèo nèo, soài tượng (mago leaves), càng cua, so đũa flower, điên điển flower, young bananas, carambola (khế), nenuphar & water-lily (bông súng), and funnel flower (rau muống)…
The sight impression is shown up by the various color of vegetables and herbs decorated around the main plate – rose of so đũa Thai flower and yellow of pumpkin buds. The sense of taste marks the smell of nước lèo’s broth. In some places like Phuoc Thanh restaurant where meats, fish and shrimp are poured over the broth. Therefore they float like swimmers floating on the Death Sea. In the streets of Saigon a lot of restaurants offering the salted fish in hot pot but the fashionable consumers still prefer the original taste of Khmer “lẩu mắm” (fermented fish in hot pot) which was modified with time by the southwestern locals but is still preserving the mắm’s savour.
The “mắm” plates are filled with the world of rural produce rich in materials, colors in harmony with the breath of expansive gardens and long rivers in southern Vietnam.
Phucnguyen
Reference Documents:
1. Article from Vietnam Airline magazine modified by the writer
2. amthucdoisong.com
3. nauanngon.com
