It seems like an oxymoron but vegetarian fish sauces do exist! For the Asian Culinary Association’s gala dinner last night in San Francisco, I did a fish sauce and fresh herb tasting for 150 guests, chefs, and students of the California Culinary Academy. Aside from the Bobby Chin contraband fish sauce that I’ve been keeping in the fridge, I bought the rest at Vietnamese and Chinese markets in San Jose. The fish sauce bottles included Viet Huong’s 3 and 1 crab, Tiparos, Squid, Ruffino, and Roland brand.
Of the eight fish sauces in the tasting, the one that I was most intrigued by was the vegetarian fish sauce pictured above, which cost $1.99. I’d seen vegetarian fish sauces in the past but never tried them. I’m an omnivore and was raised Catholic.
For this event, however, I thought that it would be interesting to see how the vegetarian nuoc mam stacked up. The label said that it contained soybeans, peanuts, water, salt, and sugar. In other words, it was had a soy sauce-like composition. There wasn't any wheat in the vegetarian fish sauce so it is a plausible gluten-free type of fish sauce.
At the event, we opened up the bottle and the color -- as you see below – was similar to that of fish sauce. The one on the left is the vegetarian fish sauce and the on the right is the regular stuff.
In the sniff test, the vegetarian fish sauce came out okay. It had a vaguely umami, briny quality.
Then we tasted with spoons and cucumber sticks. Yuck. It was just salty and flat. Completely lacking depth. I was disappointed. But for the sake of being educational, I included the vegetarian fish sauce in the lineup. If you don’t taste, you can’t learn! As the night went on, many tasters didn't care for the vegetarian fish sauce.
But I’m an optimist so today, I tried making a nuoc cham dipping sauce with the vegetarian fish sauce. It went nowhere and I threw the sauce away. It tasted terrible. The bottle went into the trash too.
The times that I’ve had Vietnamese mock meat dishes, the cooks didn’t play many games by using bottled vegetarian fish sauce. They basically diluted soy sauce with water for color and used other ingredients such as rice vinegar, salt, and sugar to create a delicately flavored sauce. I’ve had people simply sub soy sauce for fish sauce in certain recipes (such as caramel sauce kho) and the results were good, though not the same as when fish sauce was used.
However, because of the color and smell of the vegetarian fish sauce came so close to the real thing, I hold out hope that someone will create a condiment that has a decent flavor – without the fish. Seems like molecular gastronomy can do handle that!
Do you have experience with or thoughts on vegetarian fish sauce? Is it a waste of time or not? Do you know of a good brand? Or a workaround? Do share!
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Adam P says
I've always wondered whether a suitable vegetarian fish sauce could be made by fermenting seaweed.
Thuy says
Would you still call it mam without fish?
souggy says
A friend of mine bought it one time, and she was immediately repulsed by it.
chris says
I wonder if there's a mushroom analogue somewhere in the world...and saying that I'm remembering the Myanmar fish sauce I tasted that had a definite shiitake-ness to it.
I have had vegetarian shrimp paste made from (black?) soybeans, the smell was almost identical to real shrimp paste...
And welcome back! Sounds like the trip was fruitful! 🙂
AznKim says
Try Golden Boy Vegetarian Fish Sauce next time. Sure, it doesn't have a "fishy" taste like regular fish sauce but rather a sweetish taste. Some curries taste flat and lack depth without fish sauce, so using vegetarian fish sauce usually makes curries taste more like the authentic, fish sauce containing curries. If you're an omnivore, you should stick to the regular fish sauce (Golden Boy or 3 crabs is good) but if you're a vegetarian or catering to vegetarians, I think dishes taste better with the Golden Boy Veggie Fish Sauce than without.
abendkleider says
These blog is great to share with us. In all these there are so many things which is great. They basically diluted soy sauce with water for color and used other ingredients such as rice vinegar, salt, and sugar to create a delicately flavored sauce.
Manda Bear says
I will have to by my mom this 🙂 she's vegan 4 days a week ;)Cam' On Co.
Robert Bergstrom says
This is a timely post. We seem to always have one or two vegetarian friends at our dinner parties and I often find myself using soy sauce as a substitute for fish sauce. Of course the dishes never taste quite right and miss that richness that is expected from Thai and Vietnamese cuisine.
I just purchased a bottle of this brand last week and you have tempered my expectations on how this will taste. I'll test it against my standards and see how it goes.
loki says
Well - molecular gastronomy aside... There are some plant and fungi possibilities that I know of that have some seafoodness to them... Seaweeds was already mentioned - Lots of possibilities here as there are so many and they all taste so different. Fungi - Oyster mushrooms! Some say they are named after their taste, however I think it's their appearance (like a bed of oysters). But they can certainly have a slight seafood flavor. The one I really see being used is the lobster mushroom. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypomyces_lactifluorum It's really a fungus that grows on another mushroom. It has real depth of flavor and is very reminiscent of the sea with lots of umami! For plants - Borage. I served a cold soup and garnished it with borage leaves (the flowers are used too), an easy to grow herb, but not much used here in the US. People started saying it tasted like oysters - or the brine of the oysters. I always thought it tasted like cucumbers, but when I tasted it, yes, it was like oysters too (I had eaten oysters earlier in the day coincidentally!). I'm not sure about this plant though, as that cucumber flavor may distract... Lastly - Fish Mint - Diếp Cá http://vietherbs.com/herb-directory/fish-herb/ . Now I hate this horrible herb except as an ornamental. To me it tastes of old fish (and I love fish sauce, and some other fermented really-fishy fish). But maybe fermented or pickled and combined with other things... Some experiments could produce a truly vegetarian Non-Fish Sauce!
Ivy Manning says
Hi Andrea!
I messed around ALOT with this issue for my book, Adaptable Feast. Most of the bottled versions I tried either smelled like nothing or worse, they smelled liked vomit (thanks to fermented pineapple, I think).
I set out to make my own. After lots of "fails," I finally came up with a mixture of Bragg's aminos, lime juice, sugar, and I think a bit of mushroom soy. Can't remember exactly, but it works...as long as you put it in something. Recently I met a vegan chef who suggested I infuse my recipe with konbu, to add a sea flavor, I'm going to try that as soon as my kitchen is put back together.
Thanks for this great post!
twitter.com/aqnguyen says
@Ivysfeast: Love your workaround for vegetarian fish sauce. Bragg's Aminos is like Maggi Seasoning sauce!
Donkey Kong says
I drove all around the bay area looking for vegetarian fish sauce once I learned to cook. I became allergic to seafood so anything with fish sauce is out of the question. No viet restaurants for me either since everything has fish sauce.
In the end, I found it at Ocean Supermarket in Milpitas, CA. It looks like banana sauce. I had it here for over a year, too scared to try it out. Now, I just make everything without fish sauce. I only cook for myself so if the flavor is off, I don't car.
The brand is Super Q if anyone wants to look it up. It cost me $2.99
Ingredients: soy bean, salt, sugar, pineapple, chili. Distributor: IHA Beverage, Commerce, CA. Product of Vietnam
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veggie says
I think it's great! i went to the store to day where I had purchased some before and they were out! 🙁
as a vegetarian, i personally do not like fish sauce as a condiment nor can i stand the smell.
But there are recipes that kind of do need it, i make my own kimchi and pad thai and if i dont use any it seems like something is missing.
Kamagra says
Grand sujet pour un mode de vie sain, Merci pour le partage de la grande question sur ce sujet
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Hitsugi Ghoul says
Humans are omnivorus, we are ment to eat both veg and meat.
I know being a vegitarian is a life style choice but come on =.=;;
There are certain things that cannot be made vegitarian 100% eg. Kimchi it needs fish sauce, my mate is vegitarain but he is still ignorant to the fact Kimchi has fish sauce lol o still let him munch away at it cuz im not going outta may way to please him when he comes over to my house for food lol especially when i have to eat tempe etc at his (yummy but not my choice of food)
all things have life force and can feel pain even vegis and plants so i think eat real fish sauce for gods sake.
I would like to try veg fish sauce but i am not gonna expet much from it.
marlon says
They basically diluted soy sauce with water for color and used other ingredients such as rice vinegar, salt, and sugar to create a delicately flavored sauce.
Jess says
Thank you for this blog. I cannot eat anything with fish in it anymore due to a later onset of fish allergies. I have been looking everywhere to find recipes to try to male some of the foods I used to get as take out. I cannot order things anymore because they may have used a fish sauce or something else with a fish derivative - or inadvertently cross contaminated the dish by using the same cooking utensil. I love meat, I'm no veggie by any means. I've even had to find a veggie version of Worcestershire sauce. I just miss the Thai and Chinese takeout dishes, so having something as an alternative helps a lot.