Tropical Vietnamese island thrives on fermented fish sauce
PHU QUOC ISLAND - Fermented fish sauce sloshed on everything from freshly grilled shrimp to french fries may not be to everyone's taste, but it's all the rage on this island off southwestern Vietnam. Phu Quoc Island, some 45 kilometres (30 miles) off Vietnam's coast in the Gulf of Thailand, is famed for making the best fish sauce -- or nuoc mam as it known in Vietnamese -- in the world, and its 80,000 inhabitants are justifiably proud of their reputation.
"Our climate and geographical location enable Phu Quoc to produce nuoc mam with a smell, flavour and nutrition value better than anywhere else," says Nguyen Thi Tinh, chairwoman of the Phu Quoc Fish Sauce Association. "We have been making nuoc mam for over 200 years and the secrets of making it have been passed down from generation to generation. It is a very important tradition for our island," she said.
Although fermented fish sauce can be found elsewhere in Southeast Asia -- in Thailand it is known as nam pla -- Phu Quoc producers use only long-jawed anchovies, eschewing their competitors' mix of a variety of types of fish. In recognition of its quality and unique manufacturing process, the island's nuoc man was given a certified label guaranteeing its origin in June 2001 by the Vietnamese government.
Its success, however, has also spawned counterfeiters trying to cash in on the island's fame by linking their own brand of the pungent sauce -- a staple ingredient of most Vietnamese cooking -- to the Phu Quoc name. Nuoc mam is one of the mainstays of the island's economy with 100, mainly family-owned, establishments producing 10 million litres a year, accounting for five percent of Vietnam's total production. Around 10 percent of the tropical island's nuoc mam output is exported to Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea, with the rest sold domestically.
The sauce is made from a mix of anchovies and salt, with the resulting mush left to distill for between 12 and 15 months in three-metre high wooden vats that are made from trees indigenous to Phu Quoc and which lend their own flavour to the brew. Bamboo netting at the bottom of each vat separates the fish bones from the liquid, and when the fermentation process is considered to have been completed, a sample is taken and sent for testing at the Pasteur Institute in Vietnam's southern business capital of Ho Chi Minh City.
As popular as it may be in Vietnam, some foreigners find the smell nauseating and the taste too tangy for their palates. Most Vietnamese, however, cannot envisage a meal without it.
Agence France Presse - September 15, 2004
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