Phu Quoc fish sauce Nước mắm Phú Quốc
Anchovy fish sauce aged in wooden vats, dark as a cockroach wing, salty and deeply sweet with a natural fat. It smells light and clean, with no fishy or ammonia edge.
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Search on KlookHistory
The craft is over 200 years old, with about 20 family houses in the 1950s by the Dương Đông river. The island is called the country’s leading producer. About 100 producers. Decision 1307 of 16 June 2017 was announced 18 August 2017.
Why it matters
Anchovy stays at least 85 percent. The salt ratio is 2.5–3 fish to 1 salt, and 12 months, and also 3 tons of fish to 1 ton of salt, about one year. One cá cơm than workshop runs 15 months and 43 percent. Vats are 3 m across and hold 14–17 tons. The catch runs April–November. That is the fishery, not a shop hour.
Taste
Dark cockroach-wing colour, a light aroma without a fishy or ammonia smell, salty and deeply sweet, with a natural fat. Nitrogen 20–43 gN/lít, and up to 40°N. Also dark brown, clear, and thick, salty, gently sweet, and fragrant of cá cơm sọc tiêu, and sweet and fragrant, trên 25ºC. The taste can also be briny and rounded, with sweetness, a mineral note, or caramel, and it should smell strong but not stinky. The catch is placed in the Gulf of Thailand, Kiên Giang and Cà Mau waters, and also in the clear Andaman Sea.
How to enjoy it
Taste it at a barrel house. Across Vietnam, a diluted sauce with vinegar and water goes with fried spring rolls, a teaspoon with chili and garlic goes into fishy soups, pure sauce goes with steamed vegetables, and a blend with sugar and lime goes with fresh rolls.
Where to try it
The barrel houses, historically along the Dương Đông river.