The book is mostly formulaic, with recipes of the types of recipes, stories, history and more. Not all of the recipes have pictures (which was a bit disappointing), but otherwise it was a very nice-looking, colorful cookbook. I personally associated fish sauce in savory dishes that one would eat for standard meals but it appears you can use it in desserts/sweets or even Bloody Marys, which was pretty cool to read about.

Golden Boy (or as I call it, the creepy baby brand). If this is the only one you have, fine, but it isn't the best quality despite a relatively simple ingredient list. Some brands use a "degree N" number to indicate the amount of protein in the fish sauce, for example Red Boat indicates 40°N while Megachef indicates 30°N. The higher the number, the more protein. Finally, the price tag can tell you something. You can use price as a general indication of quality because the most flavourful fish sauce actually takes more fish to make, and should cost you more.Boats and historical events are what make me love reading. Could you please share the sequel books of your series?

You can also use it as a tableside condiment, adding it to anything that feels a little bland. For this, I recommend making the most popular Thai condiment, prik nam pla, simply by combining fish sauce with chopped fresh chilies and a squeeze of lime juice. (Ratios do not need to be exact, but you can start with 3 parts fish sauce to 1 part lime juice.) Add some chopped garlic or shallots if you'd like, then treat it like you would tabasco, worcestershire sauce, or salt and pepper! But will it make my food taste fishy? Another indicator of quality is protein content. As I explained in How is Fish Sauce Made above, lower quality fish sauce has more water added, and this naturally dilutes the concentration of fish protein.

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The Red Boat Fish Sauce Cookbook written by Cuong Pham with Tien Nguyen and Diep Tran with photos by Oriana Koren is a vibrant, informative, and fascinating collection of delicious recipes. I loved learning about Vietnam’s culture and cuisine, the author’s life, as well as general cooking practices. The book features interesting and often unique recipes for dishes including stews, soups, sandwiches, and drinks. Who knew that Red Boat Fish Sauce is so versatile! Lovely cookbook with varied recipes! I've already made a couple of dishes -- so good! Can't wait to get my physical copy! If you don't consume animal products or you're allergic to fish, there are a few options. You can substitute soy sauce using a 1:1 ratio. However, if the fish sauce is the only seasoning and it's the main flavor, I do a combination of soy sauce and Golden Mountain Seasoning or Maggi Seasoning, just to give it a little more of a sharper flavour that seems to mimic fish sauce better. Other recipes in the cookbook looked delicious: Seafood Chowder, Pineapple Catfish Soup, and Walnut Pesto with Shrimp to just mention three. Most brands will also add a little bit of sugar to help round off the sharpness of the salt for a more balanced flavour. The presence of sugar, in my opinion, is not a bad thing as it's such a small amount and will only help its flavour. In lower quality fish sauces, other additives such as MSG, flavor, and color might also be added. How to Choose a Good Fish Sauce

I mostly see this product from Vietnam and it's labeled mam nem, though there is also a Thai version called pla ra. If you're looking at a Vietnamese fish sauce, make sure it says nuoc mam or nuoc mam nhi. You may come across Megachef fish sauce in two different looks: brown and blue. The brown one is a formula that is sold in Thailand, while the blue one is for export only. From my tasting, the blue one is less salty with 1500 mg sodium vs 1580 of the brown one. You can buy vegan fish sauce, but you have to be quite selective because there are some reeeealy bad ones out there. In the video I showed a bottle that is awful, and the ingredient list contains water, salt, sugar, MSG, caramel, "flavor" (whatever that is), and sodium benzoate which is the preservative. It's just a salty solution with artificial flavor added.

More Thai Ingredients 101

I have been a fan of fish sauce for years, ever since my first taste, and always have a bottle of Red Boat Fish Sauce in my pantry being a firm believer that everything is better with fish sauce. When I saw that a cookbook from Red Boat was coming out I knew I had to have it! This cookbook was more than I even imagined. The history of Red Boat was very interesting! Its founder, Cuong Pham, a Vietnamese refugee found himself working for Apple in the early days of Steve Jobs but couldn't forget the flavors of his childhood. He realized that Vietnamese food in the US didn't taste right because the fish sauce wasn't right. He became committed to discovering what made premium authentic fish sauce and invested in a small company in Vietnam. Shortly there after the company told him they wanted out and left him with the company which he parlayed into the number one name in fish sauce. Yes, it smells fishy, but the magic of fish sauce is that once it's added to food, the fishiness disappears and you're left with that salty savory punch that can elevate any dish. Substitutes But, I wish the book was organized a little more comprehensively. I also would have liked to see more variation in the dessert and drink offerings.

To show us the difference in the sauce over the course of the year it takes to ferment and age, Cuong drained off fish sauce from several different barrels, allowing us to see and taste the difference between sauce aged for 3, 6, 9 months, as well as fish sauce aged for 12 months, when it’s done and bottled. He pointed out the three-month aged sauce was lighter in color and had a rougher taste when we dipped our spoons into it, than the sauces that had been aged longer. Tasting them all, it was remarkable how the longer aging gave the sauce a substantially deeper flavor. Anyone who knows the importance of fish sauce in their Vietnamese and Thai dishes, will want a copy of this book. Highly recommended.The ingredient list should contain no more than: 1) anchovies, 2) water (may not be listed even when it contains it) , 3) salt, and 4) sugar. If it contains anything else, it is not a good sign. Books are always filled with fun and interesting facts. Whether you read fiction or non-fictions, books have the ability to provide us with information we would’ve otherwise not known. Reading a variety of topics can make you a more knowledgeable person, in turn improving your conversation skills. My husband and I LOVE going to the Vietnamese restaurants in St. Paul, MN and have been fans of the cuisine since the early 1980’s, so a cookbook of beloved recipes was of great interest to me. As with anyone, we have certain likes and dislikes. I must confess that neither of us cares for pork belly as we have had it as presented by various restaurants, but do like many of the other ingredients that I saw in recipes in this cookbook. One of the secrets to their fish sauce, which is why it isn’t as “fishy” as other fish sauces, is that the anchovies are salted on the boat, right after they’re caught, so they stay fresh. Other fish sauce makers may salt the fish a few days later, when the fish are not exactly at their prime. And we all know that fresh fish doesn’t get any better the longer it sits.