Easy Vietnamese Fish Sauce - Nuoc Mam

If you ever visit Vietnam, you will find that there are different ways in which nuoc mam is prepared across different regions of the country. With a sauce made with broth in the north, mix of water and broth in the central region, to a sauce made with coconut water base in the south. What is common among all regions are the base ingredients of the fish sauce, red chilli, garlic, sugar and obviously the fish sauce. So ask about these variants when you visit different Vietnamese restaurants.

On top of the variants, you find within Vietnam itself, there are other adaptations of the recipe. Some recipes suggest replacing water with Coco Rico Soda which is a Puerto Rican soda brand infused with coconut extract (so kind of like a coconut soda) . Some recipes add carrots as well. Whatever the variants may be, the fact remains that nuoc mam is really to make and easy to store up to 3 or 4 months if you store in an airtight container. You will find out soon enough with this dipping sauce recipe.

Difference between fish sauce and nuoc mam?

Nuoc mam translates to fish sauce, however by common usage, when someone refers to Nuoc mam, they usually think of the dipping sauce you get alongside spring-rolls. The actually translation of the dipping sauce version of nuoc mam is ‘nuoc mam pha’, which means mixed fish sauce or ‘nuoc mam cham’ which stands for fish sauce for dipping.

Can you cook with fish sauce?

Fish sauce can be really strong to taste and smell if you try it out from the bottle. However, it can be more milder to taste if you add in some vinegar or lime juice, sugar and spices.

How to store nuoc mam?

If you store it in an airtight jar, nuoc mam can stay good for 4 months or so in the refrigerator