Premium Vietnamese Fish Sauce: Tasting and Buying Guide

Around the time when the banh mi book released, I received an email from Nili, asking about Red Boat competitors from Vietnam. (Sigh.) Asian food production is full of copycats and cut-throat rivalries. The photo that Nili emailed showed nuoc mam in bottles similar to Red Boat’s. It didn’t surprise me, and I asked where he saw these Vietnamese fish sauces. He pointed me to the humongous Shun Fat (Thuan Phat) market in San Jose. Shun Fat is known to have a wide variety of Southeast Asian ingredients and I’ve shopped at many of them in California. What else was I to do but investigate.

At the market, I scanned the shelves and select the ones made in Vietnam. With Red Boat added to the lineup, the result was the above collection – which ranged in prices from $4.99 to $7.99 at an Asian market. To solicit unbiased opinion, I asked students at one of my pho workshops to do a tasting and provide their comments. They’d come to class to learn about what to buy. I gave them a wide range to choose from. Though I offered cucumber for tasting, everyone tasted directly from disposable spoons. (No “eeeewww” reactions!) The responses were fascinating.

A well-heeled Russian woman and her mom found each fish sauce to have a character of their own. “One is smokey and all are pleasant,” she said. Many people found the New Town 60N bottle to be too strong tasting and slightly off. The sodium count (490 mg per tablespoon) was too low to be real. A small typo but also a lack of care.

The 9999 brand ($7.99) claimed to have a legacy dating back to 1895. Very cool, but it had preservatives and additives, as indicated on the label. I was skeptical but bought it because the handsome product label was professionally written in good English and the sodium count was dialed in at 1679 mg per tablespoon. That is, they were in earnest. Their bottle stood out almost in defiance of the Red Boat copycats. The 9999 flavor, many people agreed, was pleasant.

The Savory Hai Ngu 40N bottle came in close to Red Boat in preference and likeability. Savory included a strong narrative on its label like the others. I sense that since Red Boat debuted with a story on the label, others have seen an opportunity as well as a responsibility to tout Vietnam’s fish sauce production. (Finally.)

I took the fish sauce to my parents and asked them to taste for me too. My dad opted out because he’s still recovering from the stent implants; plus, he’s had a bout of shingles and his taste buds are all wacky.

Mom was up for it. When I poured all four fish sauces into spoons, we noticed something interesting: the 60N was thick and didn’t run like the others. I was skeptical about its claim of being highly concentrated but that was really something else. A drop on the wall of the ceramic spoon held its position until I disturbed it with a shake.

My mom and I tasted all four and her response, from left to right was: salty, very salty, mild-ish, vaguely sweet. We dipped our fingers into the spoons to taste. Watching us, my dad quipped, “Oh, you can’t taste fish sauce like that. How many people eat fish sauce straight? You need to sprinkle some on rice, or maybe dip thinly sliced boiled pork belly into each one to sample and gauge its flavor properly.”

My mom said, “That’s one way to do it Bo Gia.” I could tell that my dad wished he could have participated. Nevertheless, he said, “When we lived in Vietnam, there were so many things going on with the war. No one had time to think about quality fish sauce. Now we do.” There are claims that 80% of the fish sauce said to be produced on Phu Quoc island are fake. I judged the merits of the ones here based on their flavor and hope that exported products are produced by honest people who are ready for primetime, international trade.

That’s from 83-year-old Bo Gia who counts his blessings every day. The takeaways from sampling these premium brands of fish sauce from Vietnam were:

• More premium fish sauces are being exported but they are mostly available at hard-core Vietnamese or Viet-Chinese markets. These are not likely to be distributed for sale at say, Whole Foods.
• They are taking part in telling the story of artisanal fish sauce production in Vietnam.
• Though I haven’t seen their facilities, they appear to produce fish sauce in earnest.
• What you like is really subjective. None of the ones we sampled tasted bad. They all had good aroma and flavor, unlike their cheap counterparts that lack personality and are just salty.
• Read the labels carefully then take a leap of faith!

Overall, I liked the Savory Hai Ngu and didn’t find anything objectionable about it. The 9999 was pleasant but I don’t know about the additives, which Ann on Facebook pointed out were akin to flavor enhancers like MSG. The New Town 60N is heavy and I’d have to remind myself of that whenever I used it. Red Boat is more widely distributed but if you see other premium brands from Vietnam at the market, try them and employ them like any other fish sauce.

After we tasted the fish sauce, my mom poured each into her bowl of nuoc cham dipping sauce. “I’m not going to waste it,” she said. She kinda just created her own nuoc mam blend.

Your thoughts, questions or experience with premium fish sauce from Vietnam?

Related posts:

• Premium Fish Sauces to Try: Red Boat, IHA and Megachef
• Fish Sauce Buying Guide
• Megachef Premium Fish Sauce
• Viet Huong (3 Crabs) Fish Sauce Tasting
• Sodium Benzoate in Fish Sauce
• Vegetarian Fish Sauce
• Basic fish sauce dipping sauce (nuoc cham)
• Vegetarian Fish Sauce Dipping Sauce (nuoc mam chay)