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:
The ingredients should list only three items, anchovies, salt and water, more indicates a lesser quality “diluted” product.
“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.
“Ca Com” refers to a specific species of anchovy which is considered the ultimate fish for the sauce.
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!
Well, time for another try with cold noodles! Been really enjoying them recently – curious how these will fare – look pretty fancy!
Here’s the back of the package. So it’s a little different cooking this one, but shouldn’t be too tough.
Buckwheat noodles!
This is one big packet – won’t fit into one of my little cups.
Veggies!
An interesting looking mixture.
This is put on at the very end. Interesting…
Another one of the new bowls from the President of Nongshim America! Thank you again! I decided it would only be right to try each one out the first time with a Nongshim product.
Finished. Added a little roast beef and some hard boiled egg with Krazy Mixed Up Salt. Okay first things first… A while back, I tried Naengmyeon at a Korean restaurant and really didn’t like it. The noodles were really very hard to eat. I read about it on Wikipedia and it mentioned that a lot of times the servers would use big scissors to cut the noodles into shorter more manageable lengths. As I took the first bite of these noodles, I found myself in the same situation, so I tried the scissors – big difference! With that out of the way… The noodles are thin and have an almost gel-like coating. I don’t like this when it comes to bean thread, but it’s different here. The broth is sweet and tasty. No heat like a ramyun – it’s more of a sweet and refreshing flavor. The mustard is different; very interesting! The veggies are good – cucumber and other bits you’d commonly find served cold in there. All in all, I’m really impressed; this was really comparable to the noodle dish I got at a Korean restaurant. 4.25 out of 5.0 stars! UPC bar code 031146158171 – get it here.
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