The recent recognition of the traditional fish sauce making craft in the Nam O Village in Lien Chieu District, Da Nang, as part of national intangible cultural heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is really good news for this time-honoured village. It helps to promote the cultural and historical values of this traditional craft in the city.

Nam O villagers introducing visitors to the special recipe of making fish sauce (fish mixed with salt at the rate of 3/1)

The Nam O fish sauce making village has a proud history covering more than 400 years. It is one of a few traditional fish sauce making villages that still operate in the country.

The small fish and salt are the only materials needed to make what is considered by many the best fish sauce in Central Viet Nam. Nam O fish sauce is made from long-jawed anchovies with a high protein content. To create the sauce’s delicious taste, the fish must be freshly caught and of medium size.

The taste depends on the right mixture of fish and salt. The fish is interlayered with salt in vats for one year. 200 to 300 kilos of fish salted in one vat turns out 100 to 150 liters of fish sauce. In particular, the Nam O brand of fish sauce tastes very different from similar products from elsewhere in the country thanks to its special recipe (fish mixed with salt at the rate of 3/1).

Mr Huynh Dinh Quoc Thien, the Director of the Museum of Da Nang remarked, the recognition is a great honour of the Nam O fish sauce making village as this craft is the first intangible heritage in terms of cuisine in Viet Nam.

In the near future, the museum will join forces with the Lien Chieu District authorities to develop a project to preserve and promote national intangible cultural values in tandem with ensuring trademark protection for Nam O fish sauce so that this product can reach beyond the domestic market as currently to make it known worldwide.

In particular, seasoned craftsmen will be encouraged to hand down their secret recipes to younger generations in a bid to preserve this time-honoured traditional craft.

In addition, it is a good idea for the Nam O village to become a community museum, or exactly a living museum, which recreates historical settings to simulate past time period and provides visitors with an experiential interpretation of history. This will be a truly wonderful place where visitors could have the chance to witness how fish sauce is made through meticulous steps.

Mr Le Tan Thanh Tung, the Deputy General Director of the city-based Viet Nam Tourism Joint Stock Company (Vitours), said, Nam O fish sauce will enrich the collection of tourism products in the western part, and that of the whole city at large. In fact, if the product is a choice on the menu offered by restaurants and hotels, its value and brand will be further promoted.

Mr Tran Ngoc Vinh, the Head of Nam O Fish Sauce Village Association, hoped that, in the coming time, more programmes and activities would be held to promote the Nam O fish sauce brand.

Besides, more tours to the craft village will be offered to domestic and foreign tourists so as to introduce them to the long-standing historical and cultural values of this speciality.

Mr Nguyen Viet Dung, the owner of the Binh Minh fish sauce establishment, said he plans to develop the making of Nam O fish sauce in years to come in the face for the ongoing revival of this craft.

“We will continue to focus on enhancing product quality and expanding the production scale to develop the brand of the Binh Minh fish sauce production which follows the traditional recipe we inherited from our ancestors in Nam O village”, Dung remarked.