In the build up to the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival, many establishments making ‘nuoc mam’ (fish sauce) in the Nam O Village in Hoa Hiep Nam Ward, Lien Chieu District, Da Nang, are hastily producing the festive delicacy for upcoming much-waited occasion. Jars containing hundreds of liters of fish sauce are ready to go for sale before Tet.

The Chairman of the Nam O Fish Sauce Association cum Deputy Director of Dong Hai Cooperative, Mr Tran Ngoc Vinh, checking fermentation process of ‘ fish sauce’ before making a liquid containing fish extract.

The whole village now houses over 80 family-run fish sauce making establishments, mainly members from the Nam O Fish Sauce Craft Association, the cooperatives of Xuan Thieu, Dong Hai, O Long, Binh Minh, and the Hong Huong company, all of which each year produces a total of about 250,000 liters of fish sauce.

According to Vinh, to produce such an amount of fish sauce, about 12,000 tonnes of raw fish, mainly anchovy, are used.

In particular, on the occasion of the upcoming New Year 2020, the Nam O fish sauce village will chuck out more than 40,000 liters for the local market.

The Chairman of the Nam O Fish Sauce Association cum Deputy Director of Dong Hai Cooperative, Mr Tran Ngoc Vinh, said in front of his house are 40 clay jars of fish sauce which are dubbed as his family’s ‘heirloom treasures’, with each containing about 100 liters.

In reality, fish sauce is one of the most popular and indispensable spices in Vietnamese meals. Only when Vietnamese people no longer use fish sauce and preserve the cultural distinction in the country’s cuisine did no more people make this liquid condiment for cooking and dipping.

The Nam O fish sauce village has existed for over 400 years. 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 high protein content. To create the sauce’s delicious taste, the fish must pass through some rigorous checks for salinity, freshness and dryness to ensure top quality. The taste depends on the right mixture of fish and salt.

The mixture is compressed, sealed in either wooden barrels or big clay jars and left under the sun for months. Every day, the liquid is siphoned out through a small tap at the bottom and poured back into the container right away from the top to ensure it zigzags through layers of the fermented fish and distills out all the nutrition.

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).

In recent times, the Hong Huong company has seen a growing consumption of its fish sauce products. Its sales volume has increased by 2-3 times compared to before.

In addition to fish sauce, this family-run establishment produces many other types of ‘mam’ (salted fish) such as ‘mam nem’ (a type of fish sauce, made from small fish or small shrimps) and ‘mam ruoc’ (fermented shrimp paste) to meet the diversified tastes of consumers.

By HUYNH LE - Translated by ANH THU