Fish Sauce

[ZenNMotion]

wow! eating shrimp paste straight is very brave!

also, the fish sauce bottle at the top from the OP, there is a description at the top... "Nuoc Mam Nhi." if you get a bottle from the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc, it is one of the best in the world. top quality. this refers to the way the fish sauce is filtered. and, you can taste it raw and it is not as salty as the lower quality type of fish sauce that one use for cooking.

There was an NPR cooking piece on the stuff and they corroborate this. After several trips to a couple of huge local Asian markets, the Phu Quoc won my taste test over about half a dozen brands. I love the stuff, but for most US palates there is a very fine line between enough (amazing!) and too much (gross!)
Top Fish Sauce Picks | The Splendid Table

[WadePatton]

Yes, i've had the dried fishbait minnows, but not mexican s-rimps. Yet.

Manky Fish!

[steve garro]

Who is going to be the first to put fish sauce in their Chelada?

In Baja they have been puting Clamato in them for years.
Fish sauce..........hmmmmm..........?
- Garro.

[chomeo]

Ever eat the nasty Mexican dried whole shrimp straight up with lime?
- Garro.

if you like dried shrimp or dried seafood such as squid or fish, you'll love visiting the southeast asian countries such as Vietnam. they're good drinking food.

[steve garro]

if you like dried shrimp or dried seafood such as squid or fish, you'll love visiting the southeast asian countries such as Vietnam. they're good drinking food.

I hold that all the world's great cuisines come from penninsulas.
A greater exchange of worldly goods.
Indonisia
Thailand/Vietnam/Laos
Mexico/Baja
Italy
You get the idea.
- Garro.

[doomridesout]

An interesting idea- the corollary is basic Russian food being so absolutely god-awful.

[ZenNMotion]

I hold that all the world's great cuisines come from penninsulas.
A greater exchange of worldly goods.
Indonisia
Thailand/Vietnam/Laos
Mexico/Baja
Italy
You get the idea.
- Garro.

No, not exclusively by any stretch. Think silk road- China, Tibet, India, Persia, Turkey, Egypt,-- and yes Greece and Italy. Don't forget the Maghreb either. European food must have tasted like shit before the spice trade opened up.

[metanoize]

Garum - The Italian version of fish sauce

[rydesteel]

I also like the chopped Thai chilis (the thin deadly ones) chopped rough & soaked straight in fish sauce - most Thai resturaunts have it if you ask, but it's pretty tough for most white people.......

- Garro.

Yo Steve,
I've actualy been told in a Viet Grocery that "Those peppas to hot for your people" I inquired which people that was and with a very straight face Mama San replied "White" we became instant friends and she's still refers to me as the "Crazy White Guy" I like hotter food than most of the Thai and Vietnamese folks I know.