Vietnam as Nammers Know It

“Phân urê” never never tasted so good.

The Chin-Su slogan: protect your family’s health, eat Chin-Su. “Our soy sauce does not contain 3 – MCPD” (read the article about the soy sauce scare in VN here), and apparently their fish sauce does not contain “urê độc hại”. Oh shit, that means I’ve been eating a little bit of that fertilizer chemical my whole life?! To Vietnamese people, Nuoc Mam is personal. You can’t make a claim like that and expect people to not worry. I worry.

What about Nuoc Mam Phu Quoc? Phu Quoc island is like Napa Valley for Nuoc Mam, where they make the best tasting, the most nutritious Nuoc Mam in the world! They’ve been at this for 200 years. It’s an art involving nothing more than just fish, salt, wooden barrels, and a lot of experience.

Fresh off the island of Phu Quoc today, having spent 24 hours of rain-locked resort imprisonment and reading up on the art of making Nuoc Mam, I was eager for a taste test from the batch I bought from one of the family-run factories there.

Firstly, a little basic knowledge about Nuoc Mam Phu Quoc:

The best Nuoc Mam is made from Cá Cơm, a tiny white fish that live off the coast of Vietnam.

Ca Com is abundant around Phu Quoc island, a small vessel could harvest tons at a time. So islanders had to find ways to preserve it with salt (besides sun-drying), starting some 200 years ago. The salt and the sun “cooks” the fish, and the elixir that seeps out of the fish was full of protein and Vitamin B1, so they started eating that liquid with rice, and have not since.  

Cá Cơm is packed with salt in these 7-9 ton vats made from local trees. They are then covered, and “age” for at least 12 months.

There’s a valve at the bottom of each vat, to be opened and Nuoc Mam seeps out slowly, then pour overs, and repeats for a while until they reach a certain protein level and a deep-red color.

The first batch, or “nước mắm nhĩ” is like Extra Virgin Olive oil. It’s the most expensive, and it contains the most protein, flavor. They measure the protein contain ranging from 10-20N (average stuff, most of the stuff you get at the supermarket), to 20-30N (above average), and 40N (ooh so good).  

The case I bought contains 6 bottles of 40′N, their highest quality batch from this joint called Khải Hoàn on Phu Quoc Island. Cost: VND 96,000 ($6), or roughly $1 each bottle.

Over the weekend, my little sister had bought a bottle of “Chin-Su” Nuoc Mam from the super market. The Chin-Su bottle is VND 12,000 plus VAT, slightly cheaper.

It’s the old Mass Produce vs. Boutique Product challenge, Corporate vs. Family Business…in this case, it’s Chin-Su vs. Khải Hoàn. Disclaimer: I am not associated with neither company in the experiment (but if the owner of Khai Hoan only has beautiful daughters and wants a son-in-law who really don’t mind being around the smell all day…)

(The French wine is just there…to clean the palate. Just kidding, I used cháo trắng, plain rice porridge, to reset the palate)

The Ingredients from Chin-Su:

Let’s see: Nước (water), muối (salt), đường (sugar), đạm cá cơm (protein from the anchovies), Monosodium Glutamate (fancy name for “bột ngọt”), sodium guanilate (some kinda salt, I guess), some other chemicals, some more chemicals…and hương cá hồi (salmon flavor), and…urê?!

Whaaa….at?! I blinked twice: “Urê Nội Sinh Dưới 0.025%”. So it DOES contain urê, but not alot. Having a little does not mean having none, and certainly not warrant of making the big deal about not having the substance on both sides of the bottle.

Now, to the ingredients from Khải Hoàn Fish Sauce: cá cơm, muối (anchovies, salt).

Not “anchovies protein”, or “anchovies flavor”, but simply “cá cơm”. And Salt!  

2 ingredients vs. 16 from Chin-Su. Phú Quốc won 1:0.

Now informed of the ingredients, we proceeded to the taste test. My sister wanted us to try with white rice. But I insisted that we tasted it like wine – straight up, a spoon-full each time.

(Chin-Su on the left, Khai Hoan on the right. Note the richer color from the island brand)

First, Chin-Su. The color is somewhat paler, and it smells generic.

It hits your pallate like a rock, salty and somewhat MSG. Pleasant fish taste that follows, and no other impression.

The Phu Quoc brand:

The Nuoc Mam from Phu Quoc is a deep red, with prominent smell of fish, seaweed and I would say a hit of sesame seeds (but my nose is confused by now).

It registers various level of tastes when it reaches your touch, not harsh, but rather smooth and full of fish flavor, and leaving a pleasant after taste that wants you to “chép miệng” to make sure it lingers further.

Phu Quoc brand wins the taste and smell test, hands-down: 2:0.

People who are reading this must think I am out of my mind, as it reads like a wine tasting session. But for a national condiment and the staple of all sauces for 80+ million people, Nuoc Mam tastes different from region to region, from what kind of fish was put in it, salt content in the seawater, how sunny the weather was, and what care was taken to age the fish inside…

Besides, I would be out of my mind if I let some deushbags sitting in some corporate PR office at Chin-Su talk me out of eating my traditional Nuoc Mam, you know, the kind that contains just 2 ingredients in it: fish, and salt.  

Disclaimer: not associated with the Mastercard company in anyway.

Eggs & bacon in Singapore: $4.99. Make it to a meeting at 7:00, having had a great breakfast at 6:50: priceless.

Travel gear – the essentials (yes, the bottle says “Nuoc Mam”). Saigon beer, airport price, $1. Knowing I can get a cold Saigon beer at Tan Son Nhat for just $1: priceless.

Salmon eggs & uni at K-cafe, Saigon: $20. Lunch with Dad, and seeing him enjoy the good stuff at K-cafe: priceless.

Getting roasted at the beach with family on weekends: priceless.

Cohiba (illegal in the USA) from Cuba…VND 180,000. Working, at the beach, with friends, while smoking Cohiba: priceless.

Hanging out with Miss Universe from Thailand (honey, it was not a date…some other Miss Universes were there). Price of lunch: Free (I didn’t pay). Having an understanding girlfriend: priceless.

And the crew I’d pick to have lunch with over Miss Universe any day, the superb team at Muaban.net, from left: Quoc, Quy, Vi, Anh, Thao, Hung: definately priceless.

Coming up next: The Bad Life (why, you think everyday is like paradise here in Vietnam? Wake up and chew the pollution)