Top 8 varieties of delicious fish sauce from 3 regions in Vietnam

1. Tép Shrimp Sauce (Ninh Bình)

Ninh Binh is not only known for burnt rice and goat meat but also for Tép Shrimp Sauce. Tép Shrimp Sauce is carefully selected from mature river shrimp with round bodies and a blue-green color.

The shrimp chosen for making this sauce must be fresh, with round bodies, and a blue-green or live red color in freshwater. After being thoroughly cleaned, the shrimp are marinated in salt and mixed with thính, a special ingredient made from soaked and roasted glutinous rice. This rice is soaked for 30 minutes to nearly an hour, drained, roasted over low heat, constantly stirred by hand to ensure it becomes well-cooked, crispy, and fragrant. The finely ground thính is then sprinkled evenly on the fresh shrimp, previously mixed with salt in specific proportions - about 10kg of shrimp, 1kg of thính, 02kg of salt for sour fish sauce, or 03kg of salt for sweet fish sauce. Add 2 liters of boiled then cooled water to the mixture. Pour the prepared mixture into jars, jars, or pots, seal tightly, and let it ferment in a cool place for about 6 months.

The longer the sauce is aged, the better and more flavorful it becomes. Making a standard batch of Tép Shrimp Sauce is indeed a challenging task. The sauce has a unique, enticing aroma, and a deliciously sweet flavor. It can be enjoyed with boiled meat, vegetables, or cooked with rice for a rich, savory taste!

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2. Shrimp Sauce (Thanh Hóa)

Shrimp paste is one of the popular specialties in the North Central region of Thanh Hoa, made from shrimp or moi and salt. Going through the natural fermentation process will produce a sauce with a very distinctive aroma and color. Unlike shrimp paste, fish sauce, shrimp paste is made from the sea lizard in the coastal area of ​​Hau Loc.

The prepared ingredients can be shrimp, crayfish, or even moi. According to experience, the best quality shrimp paste, with a high richness, must be moi - a species caught a lot from the open sea.

Thanh Hoa's specialty shrimp paste is often mixed with lime juice or white wine until it foams to bring out the aroma and dilute it. You can also add a little sugar to soften the taste. Shrimp paste when mixed is used as a dipping sauce for dishes such as pork liver, boiled pork, or dog meat, and can be accompanied by various herbs, sour star fruit, banana flowers, or fresh galangal, depending on the type of meat. When using shrimp paste with vermicelli served with fried tofu or Hanoi-style fish cake, you can add a little hot fried fat.

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Crab Paste is processed from the crab (similar to crab) in the downstream areas of the Thai Binh River. In Hai Duong, districts such as Kinh Mon, Thanh Ha, Tu Ky, and especially Kim Thanh are famous for making delicious crab paste. The crab is cleaned, drained. After peeling the shell and removing the eggs, the crab is finely crushed in a stone mortar, then mixed with salt (in a ratio of 3 parts crab to 1 part salt), and kneaded. After that, put it in a porcelain jar or a bamboo basket, cover it tightly, and ferment in a dry and cool place. About thirty days later, take the jar of crab paste out to dry.

During the day, expose it to the sun, and at night, expose it to dew. After about a week of drying, it ferments. When fermented, add rice flour and a little good-quality rice wine yeast. Rice wine yeast helps eliminate the fishy smell of the crab and adds a pleasant aroma to the Crab Paste. Like shrimp paste, crab paste is made from the main ingredient, which is crab. Crab Paste has a brownish-green color, a mild taste, and a slightly pungent smell. Crab paste is often eaten with boiled vegetables or dipped with pickled cucumbers. Crab paste vermicelli with boiled meat and fresh herbs is also a delicious dish that should not be missed. A bowl of sparkling crab paste, slightly pink, with a strong aroma, squeezing lime in quickly, stirring to create bubbles, is the companion of many countryside dishes such as water spinach, sweet potato leaves, gourd, boiled meat, pickled eggplant...

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Fermented Anchovy Sauce from Long An is considered a distinctive product of the saltwater area in particular and the Mekong Delta region in general. The taste of this dish is both fragrant and rich, with a deep and charming flavor. Therefore, fermented anchovy sauce is very popular in the meals of people in Can Giuoc.

The initial ingredients are crucial, the fresher the anchovies, the more fragrant the fermented anchovy sauce. Next, the person cleaning the fresh anchovies to reduce the fishy smell, then grinds them finely with salt and sugar. Afterward, this mixture is exposed for about 3 – 4 days, then squeezed to extract the essence and exposed to the sun until the mixture becomes sticky again.

Fermented Anchovy Sauce is not only used with rice or rolled with boiled meat, fresh vegetables, rice paper, but people also use pure fermented anchovy sauce to enhance the flavor of vermicelli soup to make it more delicious.

Reference link: https://vietflavour.com/san-pham/mam-cong-cha-can-giuoc/

Specialty Fermented Shrimp Paste in Da Nang is similar to other types of shrimp paste, but with a unique preparation method and a distinct taste, combining salty and a hint of spiciness, reflecting the character of the people in the Central region. The local fermented shrimp paste in Da Nang has become a heartwarming delicacy for many tourists visiting this Central Vietnamese land.

Fermented Shrimp Paste has a deliciously sweet and moderately salty flavor, making it very palatable. Those who have tried the pork rolled with rice paper dish must surely be impressed with this fish sauce. The sauce is made from salted fish, fermented for about 3 months, then scooped into a bowl. Sugar, lime, finely chopped garlic, and whole fresh tomatoes are added, mixed with toasted rice powder, and sugar. Buying fermented shrimp paste as a gift is also a great suggestion when you travel to Da Nang!

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When mentioning the three-spot crab, many people may not have a specific image of what it is and how it tastes. However, for the people in the Southern river region, the three-spot crab is very familiar, and three-spot crab sauce is the most interesting dish in family meals.

The three-spot crab belongs to the crustacean family, resembling the rice field crab in shape and size, living in brackish water areas, mudflats, and river estuaries, especially at the foot of the mangrove forest. It is named three-spot crab due to the three spots on its back. The method of catching and salting the three-spot crab is simple but still creates a dish with a strong cultural and culinary heritage.

After catching the three-spot crabs, they are cleaned of mud, then put in a pot or jar with pre-prepared saltwater. Coconut leaves are used to cover them. Three-spot crabs can be stored for a whole year without spoiling. When eating, the crabs are scooped out, rinsed with boiling water, the aprons are removed, and they are lightly crushed. Add garlic, chili, lime, white sandy sugar, finely chopped lemongrass, julienned mango, and diced sour star fruit. Mix everything with the three-spot crabs and let it sit for a day before serving.

Reference link: shopee.vn/Three-Spot-Crab-Sauce-Specialty-Nam-Can_Ca-Mau-i.35818259.1825203039

Chau Doc lies along the gentle and fish-rich Mekong River. Due to the abundant supply of fresh fish, locals couldn't consume it all, leading to the creation of various types of fish sauces and dried fish for long-term preservation. Among them, one type that seems cleaner and more convenient for cooking into a main dish is Thai fish sauce.

Thai fish sauce here is not the fish sauce from Thailand but rather thin slices. Snakehead fish meat is sliced into pieces longer than the palm of the hand, and papaya is finely sliced like slices of pig skin often used in broken rice dishes. These two main ingredients are marinated with thính (a special kind of rice powder) and various other unique spices, with garlic being indispensable. After a sufficient period, meaning the fish sauce is ready, the fish sauce maker packs it into boxes for sale to serve tourists visiting Chau Doc and locals alike.

For those too busy, a simple meal can be prepared with hot rice and opening a box of Thai fish sauce to eat immediately. Those who enjoy a more sophisticated meal can have Thai fish sauce with boiled pork belly, or boiled shrimp or snakehead fish, rolled with rice paper. The most common way to eat is to add some herbs, a little meat, boiled fish, and boiled shrimp, along with small strands of white rice noodles onto a piece of rice paper. Diners will roll all these ingredients into a round shape and dip it into a bowl of chili garlic fish sauce.

Reference link: www.lazada.vn/products/half-kg-thai-fish-sauce-specialty-chau-doc-an-giang-i324772662.html

Nghệ An's Shrimp Paste is not made from pork like in the North. Here, 'ruốc' refers to a type of small shrimp, smaller than freshwater shrimp. The ruốc season extends from January to April (lunar calendar) each year, and during this time, fishermen enthusiastically go shrimp harvesting.

The harvested ruốc is often used to make shrimp paste or sold to factories for export. According to locals, making shrimp paste requires precision and meticulousness, not less than preparing complex dishes. Fresh ruốc must be selected, and washing with brine water is strictly avoided as it can spoil the ruốc. After washing, ruốc is mixed thoroughly with coarse salt and then left to ferment. Good shrimp paste should have a light aroma, a balanced taste without excessive saltiness, and an appealing deep red color. For the people here, shrimp paste is an indispensable seasoning in many Nghệ An households. It can be used as a dipping sauce, paired with noodles, or in various dishes such as shrimp paste soup, shrimp paste braised meat, or caramelized shrimp paste…

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