Every time Tet approaches, the people of Nam O fish sauce village are busy preparing enough fish sauce to serve customers inside and outside the city who want to buy them for consumption and as gifts for relatives, friends and partners. From the beginning of the alley, you can faintly smell the characteristic fish sauce flavour, blending in the familiar space of the time-honoured fishing village.

The Huong Lang Co fish sauce facility is not only a familiar address for those who love Nam O fish sauce but also a tourist attraction for many domestic and foreign tourists. Photo: DOAN HAO LUONG

The Nam O traditional fish sauce village is one of the few remaining and developing ones in Da Nang today, with an age of more than 700 years, located in the two wards of Hoa Hiep Nam and Hoa Hiep Bac, Lien Chieu District, da Nang.

According to the Nam O Fish Sauce Village Association, the village currently has about 100 households making fish sauce, annually supplying 200 - 300 thousand liters of fish sauce to the domestic market. In particular, on the days before Tet, each household increases fish sauce production by 20 - 40% compared to normal days.

With a tradition of 4 generations of making fish sauce, according to Mr. Bui Thanh Phu, the Permanent Vice President of the Nam O Traditional Fish Sauce Craft Village Association, to serve consumption for Tet, this year his family’s Huong Lang Co fish sauce brand is expected to increase production by more than 20% compared to normal days, equivalent to about 8,000 - 10,000 liters of fish sauce.

Mrs. Bui Thi Hoa, the owner of Ba Hoa fish sauce facility from Hoa Hiep Nam Ward, Lien Chieu, Da Nang still hires extra workers to provide enough fish sauce for Tet. Mrs. Hoa said that this year, she made 300 - 400 liters more than usual.

The fish sauce is made from anchovies bought from the Son Tra Beach and fermented with Sa Huynh salt from Quang Ngai Province. To have enough delicious fish sauce to sell for Tet, she starts fermenting the fish from January until November and December, then begins filtering the fish sauce.

Not only does she have customers in Da Nang, she also sends it to customers in the capital city of Ha Noi and Dien Bien Province.

“Although the economy is difficult, the price remains unchanged, each liter of fish sauce only fluctuates around VND70,000. Now that my children no longer follow the profession, I am old and weak, so I have to hire workers because the jars are too heavy to carry. Here, everyone makes fish sauce according to the same process, so the quality of the products is quite consistent. The only difference is the way of promoting and finding customers.”, Ms. Hoa added.

In addition to the brands of the Huong Lang Co and Ba Hoa fish sauce, the Nam O fish sauce village has many famous fish sauce establishments such as Di Sau, Di Nhut, Binh Minh, O Long, Tran Ngoc Vinh, Ba Cu, Ba Sieng, Ba Lu, Bay Tri, Hai Hiep, Hai Lien, Bay Ngung and Hong Huong.

With a strict production process according to traditional methods, the Nam O fish sauce is gradually dominating the market in big cities such as Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City. In particular, after the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recognised the Nam O fish sauce making as a national intangible cultural heritage, fish sauce makers in Nam O are more aware of improving product quality.

This is also the motivation for the villagers to continue promoting the reputation and historical value of the product ‘Nam O Fish Sauce’ in the direction of promoting the heritage value, preserving the traditional fish sauce making profession and developing tourism in a sustainable direction.

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 be freshly caught and of medium size. 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).

Reporting by DOAN HAO LUONG - Translating by A.THU