Fish sauce question

The other day I was half paying attention (I was reading) to a cooking show on TV (not Food Network, Discovery or HGTV or something). Guy said something along line of "be sure to use Vietnamese fish sauce for this, save the Thai sauce for Thai dishes." Do most people keep more than one type of fish sauce? We tend to buy nuoc mam (Vietnamese) if at Chinese grocery, nam pla if at little Thai store. Use interchangably. Does
anyone think its neccessary to stock both? I've noticed differences between brands, but no significant differences between types.

[Robin Garr]

The other day I was half paying attention (I was reading) to a cooking show on TV (not Food Network, Discovery or HGTV or something). Guy said something along line of "be sure to use Vietnamese fish sauce for this, save the Thai sauce for Thai dishes." Do most people keep more than one type of fish sauce? We tend to buy nuoc mam (Vietnamese) if at Chinese grocery, nam pla if at little Thai store. Use interchangably. Does
anyone think its neccessary to stock both? I've noticed differences between brands, but no significant differences between types.

I think they were being way too finicky, Dale ... with one possible exception. There are clear fish sauces (nam pla in Thai, patis in Filipino, nuoc mam in Vietnamese) and then there are fish pastes (can't summon any ethnic names just now). They're similar in flavor but not in texture, and I'd take care to stay in category if I substituted ethnic types. Clear for clear, paste for paste.

In any event, as I'm sure you've found, most Southeast Asian cuisines use these sauces as condiments, not primary flavors. They really add more of a salty complexity than an overt fish flavor, at least in my experience.

Thai shrimp paste is called "kapi" and it's a very different animal from fish sauce. Fish sauce is liquid. Kapi is solid. About all they have in common is that they both are salty and they both stink to high heaven in their uncooked state. They are not interchangeable.

I agree with Robin that Thai and Vietnamese fish sauces are interchangeable.

-Paul W.

In any event, as I'm sure you've found, most Southeast Asian cuisines use these sauces as condiments, not primary flavors. They really add more of a salty complexity than an overt fish flavor, at least in my experience.

In Thai cuisine, I'd have to disagree--fish sauce is a primary flavor. It's not overtly of fish. Certainly not, or else I wouldn't touch the stuff, as I detest fish. Rather, fish sauce imparts its own, distinct and desirable flavor that is obtainable no other way. Ditto with kapi. Both go a long way, and should be used sparingly in dishes, lest they overwhelm the other flavors. But that doesn't make them condiments. I view a condiment as a flavor add-on. For example, a hamburger is still a hamburger, even if you don't put ketchup or mustard on it. But try to make Pad Prik Bai Grapao without fish sauce, or Thai Green Curry without kapi (shrimp paste), and you'll notice immediately that something essential is missing.

-Paul W.

Thai shrimp paste is called "kapi" and it's a very different animal from fish sauce. Fish sauce is liquid. Kapi is solid. About all they have in common is that they both are salty and they both stink to high heaven in their uncooked state. .

Yeah, a month or so ago we started getting an odor when we opened fridge. I went rummaging in back of top shelf (that netherland where obscure sauces, chutneys, etc that were called for in one recipe migrate to) and found an open brick of shrimp paste - it was in a plastic bag that had come open. NOT a smell for the timid.

Thanks for confirmation I haven't been making a horrible Asian culinary faux pas.

Can't say anything about vietnamese fish sauce, but I find filipino fish sauce lighter and saltier than thai fish sauce which I find has a heavier mouth feel and savoury character that makes 'nam pla' better than 'patis' as a condiment. Don't know how things are done in the asian restaurants in the US but from my experience fish sauce is used in the philippines and thailand both as an ingredient and as something kept on the table as a dipping sauce (straight or mixed with other condiments).

I think they were being way too finicky, Dale ... with one possible exception. There are clear fish sauces (nam pla in Thai, patis in Filipino, nuoc mam in Vietnamese) and then there are fish pastes (can't summon any ethnic names just now). They're similar in flavor but not in texture, and I'd take care to stay in category if I substituted ethnic types. Clear for clear, paste for paste.

In any event, as I'm sure you've found, most Southeast Asian cuisines use these sauces as condiments, not primary flavors. They really add more of a salty complexity than an overt fish flavor, at least in my experience.