ok so my vietnamese friends use fish sauce....a lot lol

and then they all wanted me to try and I one time I was going to and I got the bottle but when I got home and I opened it I swear ... it was horrible .... it smelled like rotten dead fish ... only much worse it made me cry it was so bad

ok so now my questions are:

1.do vietnamese only use this? or is it an asian thing?

2.are my friends wacky or is this really a common everyday item to cook?

3.is it only just the smell or does it taste really bad and it just takes a while to get use to it?

I swear I'm not making it up .... even my mom came home and was asking what the smell was cuz it was bad ... but when I took it to one of my friends she said it wasn't bad or anything

Does fish sauce look like soy sauce?

techno I thought you'd appreciate traditional vietnamese food
ya I guess its like those stinky cheese that would take some time to figure out why people find it delicious(some people never do)
fish sauce is a traditional vietnamese food, not an asian thing
its like saying those stinky cheese is a white thing,which I'm sure you won't agree

yeah it is viet traditional sauce. if you cook viet food you have to add it.

ZurichGrrl,

do you like stinky tofu 臭豆腐? I didn't like stinky tofu when first time i smell, but i tried to taste it, it does taste good.

in fuzhou fish sauce are very popular, because people in fuzhou believe that soy sauce will leave dark spot in ur face..if u have wounds on ur face..

and making fish sauce it is a very big industry in Fuzhou




they all made in Fuzhou

nice... making a thread about how much fish sauce stinks

Fish sauce does smell! But who smells it directly from the bottle anyways? But no smell when you cook it with food. Awesome stuff. It smells like dead fish because it is! lol

Actually fish sauce is not just in Vietnam, but many SE countries also has it such as Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, etc.

Eating with fish sauce is an art. And it still depends with what kind of food you eat. Generally to make it smell good, you have to mix little portion of it with hot water, sugar, smashed garlic and minced chili peper. If you want to dip Vietnamese egg roll, then you should put some shredded carrot into it. I like it pure with hot pepper, ginger and garlic when I eat boiled squid. Leave the ginger out and squeeze in some lime juice then it is good with ox tail that we cook with pho.

There maybe 1001 Vietnamese ways of eating fish sauce.

@ Zurich well I do like some of the traditional food they cook but it's just that fish sauce that I'm against lol

actually that fish sauce reminds me of that stinky blue cheese that looks like mildew whoever came up with that cheese?! lol

and I asked if it was a traditional vietnamese thing bcuz I read in another forum other countries also used it...so I wanted to know if it was a traditional cooking sauce of just something my friends like lol


and by the way it's nothing against vietnamese food ...I think wasabi taste like carboard but I love sushi so yeah....I should have also mentioned I'm a very picky eater ....anything smells funny and I'm out

@ VietNamDNCongHoa - thanks for the tip...yeah maybe I should have asked my friend how to cook with it first

I'm trying to make a list of all kinds of mam VN has, please add on if you know anymore.

Ma('m ruo^'c
Ma('m to^m
Ma('m nhi?
Ma('m du*a
Ma('m tha'i
Ma('m ne^m

what's a mam?!

Fish sauce.

lol ok I cee


so there are many different ones? is one better than the others?

I really depends on your dish, as a sauce to dip or to flavor,
but the stinkiest one I know must be mam nem.

then that's probably it lol....


I should give it a try ... I mean the other ones

Actually "mam" means salted. Things that you don't want to try. Stick to your fish sauce senorita, because it's not that bad. Muoc mam can smell good and taste good if you know how to prepare.

As mentioned by someone above, I went to Taiwan night market and that fermented tofu hit me. It's the most disgusting smell food. However most people love it. Duran fruit is another one. How could people eat such things!

well have u seen the disgusting mildew cheese?! it looks like it has worms

Ok, Mr. Know-it-all.



Duran is delicious...mmmm....yumm

i like foods cooked with oyster sauce

I like this stuff a lot. Deep fry it, put some salt on it, and it's good enough for me to eat.

delete

^ thank god I'm not the only one that thinks so

Hmm...I can't think of anyday I eat something without fish sauce...fish sauce is literally in every food I eat. Most of time, I use fish sauce instead of salt if I want something salty.

foreigners pretty much can't stand the smell of fish sauce. as for SEAsians, they've gotten used to the smell and it's the next best thing after soy sauce.

You know "bagoong(hte brown one)"? That's fish sauce

so u use it also as a substitute for salt...interesting

it looks like it's very versatile... a lot of ways it can be used

yeah just like soy sauce is a substitute for salt. But in my opinion soy sauce can't compare to fish sauce.

how about mo^.t to^ bu'n riu ha >?

I agree. Vietnamese vegetarians subsitute soy sauce for fish sauce on many popular vnese dishes and it doesn't taste as good... it doesn't bring out the taste of the food like fish sauce does.

Btw... I think mam just means fermented seafood...cuz mam can be made from fish, squid or shrimp... and it's usually very salty cuz that's how you ferment them. Anywayz, I think mam nem smells more than fish sauce cuz it's thicker... but it's sooooo good mmmmm

so how do u use soy sauce? for what do u use it?

I don't think mam nem smell like fish sauce. The smell is like them girls have not taking shower for 2 days. It's the same thing, I ate bo bay mon with mam nem and I carried that smell in my mouth for a week. Darn!



You use soy sauce just like you use fish sauce, Senorita. Soy sauce is good for Chinese foods. Usually we use it to dip stir fried foods. Just for example, you cannot use it on Pho, Bun Bo Hue, Bun rieu, etc... But you can use it to dip won ton and Trieu Chau noodle.

Senorita? 2

ăn gỏi cuốn mà không có nước mám thì không ngon

Filipinos also use that.

Hey I didn't say that but it quoted me?

Anyways yeah mam nem lingers in my mouth too long. I use scope, brush my teeth and eat everything I can think of to cover it up. But it still stays! hahaha

filipinos use both fish sauce and soy sauce I believe. I like mixing them together when I eat fried fish.

Its called "Patis" in filo I believe, one of my mates told me

Yeah thats right. It may smell an little but it makes my fried fish taste better.

'bagoong' (concentrated patis, still with fishes)smells ewwie but I like it...a little strong for any newbie...dip it with green mangoes!!!

I tend to get itchy when I eat that

I can't eat bangoong , Im alergic to shrimp. It makes my mouth all itchy, but sometimes I pretend that Im not allergic to it. Sometimes it works though.

Ewww...how do you know what that smells like .. you've been with a girl who hasn't washed herself.. what kind of girl is that?

what's so funny about that?

I'm easily amused.

so the word señorita is amusing? lol ur funny

Something like that.

^lol 2


what do u think of fish sauce?

Fish sauce =

u think it stinkies too

I am glad you ask. Well, this girl and I went to Austrailia last summer. August in Austrlia is a winter month. So, we went hiking for 2 days to Snowy Mountains in New South Wales. We finnally reached Valentine Hut. But you know, there wasn't a place to take a shower. That night I placed my head on her stomach and smelled...mam nem.


Valentine Hut. NSN