If you visit any home in the Mekong Delta and ask if they know about the fish sauce paste, they will all answer with a resounding, “Yes!” The Mekong Delta is rich with fish and shrimp, so they are dried for preservation and also made into fish sauce paste to diversify the food.
Perhaps it is because fish sauce paste is made of ingredients from the rivers by the clever hands of local farmers that the fish sauce paste has its own unique scent and flavor. It is very rustic and simple, but leaves a lasting impression with diners. Bac Lieu fish sauce paste is very special because it has the combination of cuisine from three ethnicities: Cham-Khemer and Vietnam.
A friend of mine, Mr.Hanh Duc Nguyen is the Director of the Cultural Department of Vinh Loi district. He tells me that when visiting Bac Lieu if you eat fish sauce paste you must go to, “Co Bay” shop. When we questioned about the name of the shop he explained to me that the shop is near the temple called “Co Bay” but its real name is Hong Gam. This shop sells only one dish which is fish sauce paste hotpot. The shop has been open more than 30 years and has sold this dish for three generation in Bac Lieu.
The owner of Hong Gam shop tells me that three generations of her family has sold their homemade fish-sauce paste, and that the types can change with the season: “mam ca sac, mam ca ro, mam ca linh” They always make their own and never get from any other shop.
Each place has its own secret recipes, which allow them to create their own flavors. All of them still go through the same process: the fish must be gutted and cleaned, then cured in salt for 30 days. It is then rinsed with water to rid fat and impurities, drained, and mixed with “thinh”- rice powder - before being cured in a large jar, which is tightly covered. A salt-water brine is made using the proportion of 1 liter of water to 20 grams of raw salt, which is then poured in the jar.
The jar is placed in the sun 45 days before sugar syrup is added. Then one layer of fish will cover one layer of sugar and cover the jar and tie it tightly again. Keep it like that for a few days more then it is ready to eat.
Before there were only a few dishes cooked with fish paste, such as stewed fish paste to eat with vegetables in a farmer’s home. Eventually fish paste followed people travel to everywhere and it was created into many dishes and hot-pot with fish paste is one of them. Hot-pot with fish paste is a favorite dish for both poor people and rich people.
Hot-pot with fish paste cooked with the concentrated sauce of “mam sac” or “mam ca ro” and coconut juice. Then add a little bit garlic, lemon grass to have a better smell. Foods that served with hot-pot are very various such as roasted pork, basa fish, “ca ngat” fish, “ca bong lau” fish, “ca keo” fish, shrimp, squid, fresh tofu or deep fried tofu. However even you put all of them into the hot-pot it isn’t an authentic hot-pot.
Because hot-pot with fish paste has to be served with wild vegetables such as “cang cua” leaves, “rau dua” vegetables, broccoli, chives, bitter herbs, “rau mac” vegetables, spinach, “bon bon” vegetables, cilantro, glory morning, banana flower etc...
If only vegetables then it won’t be enough but there are also flowers: flower of water melon, “so dua” flower, shallots flower, “luc binh” flower, “dien dien” flower...Then we also have fruits such as “ca phoi”, “dau rong” and bitter melon...all of them put together on the table are enough to demonstrate a field in the harvest time with the green of vegetables, the red of “So dua” flower- its origin believed from Thai, the yellow of water melon flower. Then there is also aroma comes up from the pot beside and it will be more special if have this dish in the rainy day. It will be very difficult to refuse this dish.
When you sit down and put the vegetable into the pot and when the vegetables just cooked well you can have it with fish, meat, squid and shrimp... then you can chew all of them slowly to feel the bitter of bitter melon and the sweetness of “bong bi” flower and “dien dien” flower as well as the crunchy of glory morning and “bong sung” – similar with lotus. Besides that fat and sweetness also come from the roasted pork and seafood like fish and shrimp. The soup is also a little bit spicy so the taste is even getting better and unforgettable.
Hot-pot with fish paste is like a symphony of cuisine- a perfect combination of aroma and color. Before this dish is just for farmers eating in small kitchen but now it become expensive dish that served in party table. Who has tried this dish for the first time will want to go back Bac Lieu and try again the hot-pot with fish paste in “Co Bay” shop. The local people in Bac Lieu if they left Bac Lieu they will miss this dish so much which is only rustic but carry many good memories about their hometown.
Followed by PV
Dan Tri Newspaper
Extracted from articles written especially for Golden Spoon 2014 called “A journey of searching traditional rustic dishes”