Reader Tip: Selecting & Using Fish Sauce With Your Ramen!

A reader named Don D. decided to share some wisdom about fish sauce. I’ve really never used it or known much about it. This was a really good read and I thought it deserved sharing with everyone!

An absolute necessity for any serious Rameneer is a bottle of NUOC MAM (Vietnamese) or NAM PLA (Thai) fish sauce, especially for any SE Asian dishes.  I’m not going to get into the details of the flavor other than to tell you its made of fermented anchovies (if you find that idea disgusting try to remember that fermented anchovies is one of the primary ingredients in Worscestershire Sauce).  What I’d like to do though, is give your acolytes a little info on what to look for and a couple of  brands to buy.

Like wine and olive oil, all Nuoc Mam (nook-mom) or Nam Pla (nom-plah) is not born equal, so to help you decide  which to buy, look for the following:

1.   The ingredients should list only three items, anchovies, salt and water,  more indicates a lesser quality “diluted” product.
2.   “Ni” or “Thuong Hang”, indicates  the sauce is a first run off the  fermenting vats, (similar to the meaning of “extra  virgin cold-pressed olive oil”). Later runs are  cheaper, diluted with water, and not so flavorful.
3.   “Ca Com” refers to a specific species of anchovy which is considered the ultimate fish for the sauce.
4.  The sauce should be a perfectly clear ” deep tea” color with no cloudiness or residue in the bottom of the glass, not plastic, bottle.

Here are three superior brands to look for:  PHU QUOC,  THREE CRABS,  DRAGONFLY and if you can’t find the first three, you can try the more commonly available, not-so-terribly-wonderful- but-still-perfectly-acceptable, TIPAROS.  There are plenty of other  good brands not mentioned here , so if you follow the guidelines above, you’re practically guaranteed a  a quality sauce.
To use it, simply give your finished ramen a couple of generous shakes, a swirl with your chopsticks and go for it, but beware….like Ramen, it’s highly addictive!

Right on – thanks for the info!

#871: Dragonfly Instant Noodles Artificial Hot & Sour Shrimp Flavor

Time for breakfast! Been waiting to try this one for just the right day. Just look at those enormous shrimp on that package! Jeez! I’m sure this will make for a good breakfast. Got this one at the local H Mart. By the way – today is a holiday – check out what Wikipedia says about it:

Constitution Day (or Citizenship Day) is an American federal observance that recognizes the adoption of the United States Constitution and those who have become U.S. citizens. It is observed on September 17, the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787.^[2]

The law establishing the holiday was created in 2004 with the passage of an amendment by Senator Robert Byrd to the Omnibus spending bill of 2004.^[3] Before this law was enacted, the holiday was known as “Citizenship Day”. In addition to renaming the holiday “Constitution Day and Citizenship Day,” the act mandates that all publicly funded educational institutions provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day.^[4] In May 2005, the United States Department of Education announced the enactment of this law and that it would apply to any school receiving federal funds of any kind.^[5] This holiday is not observed by granting time off work for federal employees.

So happy Constitution Day! Happy Citizenship Day! Noodle time!!!

The back of the packaging (click to enlarge).

This is a big noodle block!

Here’s the dry seasoning.

A fine powder.

Liquid base.

Has a strong lemon scent – very tom yum.

Veggies!

Nice mixture.

Finished. Added some veggies, two fried egg with Krazy Mixed Up Salt and some Crystal Hot Sauce. The Noodles are excellent – buttery and plentiful. Nice chew. The broth has a great citrus and spicy taste – very much like tom yum soup. I’m always impressed by the quality of these; they’re inexpensive and really good! 4.0 out of 5.0 stars! UPC bar code 721557450925 – get it here!

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Evan Osnos talks about a viral video that made Chinese citizens stand up; Nigeriatown in Guangzhou; and other signs of a new China. Chicago, May 1, 2009.

Here’s the video he’s talking about.

#851: Dragonfly Artificial Pork Ribs Flavor Instant Noodles

Hey awesome – picked this up at H Mart on Friday. I’ve had the pack but not the bowl! Time to try it!

The side panels – click to enlarge.

Hey a fork!

The noodle block.

The dry powder seasoning.

A very fine powder.

The liquid base.

Has a nice smell.

Veggies!

Not a huge amount but not bad.

Finished. Added onions, broccoli, red bell pepper, Huy Fong Sriracha chili sauce, a fried egg and some Krazy Mixed Up Salt. The noodles aren’t bad – soaked up a lot of the flavor of the broth which was nice. They were a little chewier than I expected, but not in a negative way. The broth was great – had a nice warm, hearty, slightly sweet and full flavor to it. Decent vegetables too.  like this stuff! 3.5 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 7215574508576 .

A beautiful thing!

2012 is the year of the dragon

#832: Dragonfly Mee-Goreng Dry Ramen Noodles

Found this the other day at KS Mart in Lynnwood (that’s where I git my kimchi!). This is from China – never had a Chinese made mee-goreng before! Usually I like the Dragonfly stuff though. Let’s give this a go!

Back of the package.

This is a big noodle block for mee-goreng! Rad!

The dry seasonings.

Kind of a sweet and garlic-onion taste.

Liquid packet.

Looks like seasoned oil and maybe some sweet soy sauce in there.

Finished. Added some veggies, some roast beef I sauteed with garlic, a fried egg with some Krazy Mixed Up Salt and some Dua Belibis hot chili sauce. The noodles are thin and very springy. The flsavor is interesting – not like Indomie Mie Goreng – it’s got a strong anise taste and is kind of sweet, but has no spiciness at all. Interesting stuff – a lot of it, too. 3.75 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 721557450253 .

Shanghai in 1973 – this is awesome!

Stevie Winwood – Shanghai Noodle Factory

#684: Dragonfly Instant Noodles Artificial Seafood Flavor

I’ve been waiting a while to have some things in first before trying this one. I wanted to have some seafood to add to it or something interesting. Well, I had two something interestings to add to it, so let’s check this one out!

Here’s the back of the packaging.

As of this point, Dragonfly’s noodles have never failed to satisfy. Anice texture and gauge – really very nice.

Here’s the powdered seasoning packet.

This is the packet contents. For my birthday, my wife, son and I went to Seattle to Uwajimaya and found these little bowls. Well, I’m sure they’re sake cups but I needed something like a glass/ceramic pinch bowl for showing packet contents – and these are perfect!

Here’s the vegetable packet.

A nice amount of veggies here.

Finally, some seasoned oil.

It’s funny – the ingredients of this packet mention nothing about fish at all but it has a strong seafood scent!

My son and I shared noodles today and we tried a couple of ingredients I added to this one – Kamaboko and Naruto – I did a post about it here if you’d like to check it out!

Finished. As I mentioned, I added kamaboko, naruto and an egg. I also added one piece of sushinori (seaweed). This was a pretty good bowl of noodles. I really liked the noodles themselves – same as always. The broth though was a bit lighter in flavor than I expected. Dragonfly’s stuff is usually quite flavorful but this was a tad  less so. The veggies were nice – carrot bits were crisp as usual. All in all, quite good. 3.75 out of 5.0 stars. UPC barcode 721557450932 – get some here.

Part 2 of the Sagan series – thanks again to taintedbloop!

Amazing old school computer room from 1983!