Thought all Thai fish sauce is the same? Not true. Read below, then you can stun your Thai wife by asking her to buy/make one of the rarer types.
Pete
http://www.bangkokpost.com/leisure/rest ... ai-secrets
Leisure » Restaurant Review
Saucy Thai secrets
Fish sauce has waned in quality, but the original is still available if you know where to look
* Published: 28/03/2010 at 12:00 AM
* Newspaper section: Brunch Bangkok Post
When we think about Thai food, there are some details that seem so commonplace, so minor, that it is easy to forget how crucially important they are. One of them is nam pla phrik, the little bowl or container of nam pla with slices of phrik khee nu (bird chillies) floating in it, a condiment as ubiquitous on the Thai table as salt and pepper are in the West.
Many of the most popular Thai dishes - curries like kaeng phet and kaeng khio wan, stir fries like phat khana kap pla khem (Chinese broccoli fried with salted fish), stuffed omelettes like khao jio sai bai horapha kap phrik chee fa - are salty and chilli-hot as served. But tastes differ. Some people like the saltiness accented, while others prefer them to be very hot. This is where nam pla phrik comes in, ready to help each person adjust the taste of the dish according to preference.
Every restaurant and food shop, regardless of size, will always have it on the table. If it is a large place the nam pla phrik with be offered in a ceramic container, sometimes covered, to make it look more attractive. More basic food shops set it out in a small drinking glass that is passed from table to table.
Nam pla phrik isn't used only to season Thai food. Single-dish Chinese dishes like khao mu daeng (Chinese red pork with rice and gravy), khao kha mu (stewed pork leg with rice) and even noodle dishes like kui tio rad na and phat see iew (rice noodles stir-fried with dark soy sauce, meat and Chinese broccoli) are served with a glass of it kept nearby.
PIQUANT: ‘Nam pla Mon’ from Samut Songkhram, eaten with grilled mackerel. There is also some ‘kaeng phet’, a spicy, coconut creambased curry.
It is used in every part of the country. The Isan version is different in that the chilli used is usually dried and ground, and sometimes there is a little liquid from pla ra (fermented fish) added. There are a couple of reasons for this. One has to do with convenience: using ground, dried chillies, a staple found in every kitchen, saves the time that would otherwise be used slicing fresh ones.
The second reason is that, when made with ground, dried chillies and fermented fish that condiment can serve as a simple nam phrik, or chilli dip sauce. Served with sticky rice, boiled vegetables and a steamed or grilled fish it makes a healthy meal.
In the Central Region and other parts of Thailand, those who want to add flavour to nam pla phrik can add thin slices of fresh garlic and squeeze in a little lime juice. Farmers in Samut Songkhram province make a version called nam pla Mon by mixing nam pla with phrik khee nu, lime juice, chopped galangal and krachai (an aromatic root), and fresh coriander. This sauce is used to season the mackerel called pla thu that have been grilled over a fragrant coconut husk fire.
These examples show how crucial nam pla phrik is to Thai dining today, and its role was just as vital in the past. In the old days, people used to say that if you had a plate of good, hot rice, a fried egg and some nam pla phrik khee nu, that was plenty.
The idea was that the rice and the egg were common enough, but it was the nam pla with chillies that made them delicious.
The term "nam pla dee" - "good nam pla" - appears in every old Thai cookbook. People thought that high-quality nam pla was needed to give any dish being cooked a fine flavour.
"Good" nam pla was made at home, and the technique for making it was the same for people who lived on rivers and canals and those who lived near the sea. The only difference was the kind of fish that was used.
The freshwater fish that was used was pla soy, a soft, translucent species with soft meat. During the rainy season when the floods rose, pla soy proliferated. Then, when the waters receded, villagers placed nets in the river to catch them.
The fish were fermented in clay jars with salt, three parts fish to two parts salt, for eight months, after which the liquid that resulted was boiled and filtered. The filtered nam pla was poured into bottles that were set out in the sun. When one was used up, another would be brought in and opened.
Households located near the seashore used pla kratak, which is also small, translucent and soft. The proportions of fish to salt and the fermenting method was the same as with the freshwater fish, but in this case the liquid was not boiled but eaten "raw".
Nam pla made this way was "good" nam pla. There were factories that produced it, but they used the same technique that was used in private households. This meant the city dwellers could enjoy nam pla that was just as good as that used by villagers.
Today nam pla dee is all but unobtainable. There are still a few villagers living near rivers who make their own, but the practice has virtually stopped in seaside areas, largely because the pla kratak have been largely fished out. Fishermen who do catch them now usually sell them to factories, which brings them income quickly, rather then using them to make their own nam pla.
The nam pla sold these days is factory-made, usually from a fish called pla sai ton. It is small, the the quality of its meat can't compare with that of the pla kratak. What's more, the factories often dilute the sauce and then add flavouring to compensate. If they made it full-strength, like the home-made version, they would have to sell it for more than 100 baht a bottle.
Tracking down home-made nam pla that would have passed muster in the past as nam plee dee requires serious detective work now. In fact, it's as hard as finding a gold chain in the sea. It exists, but getting hold of it requires time and energy. Once you do find it, however, you are in for a special experience. You may even feel that just some hot rice, a fried egg and some of the fish sauce with sliced chillies is all you really need.
Today I'd like to recommend a source of real nam pla dee that I found by accident after hunting for a long time. Happily, they offer it for sale to people who want to taste the real thing. It is a shop called Ran Phueng Klan that sells dried seafood, located at Mu Ban Sam San in Sattahip roughly across from the Samoson Nam Nao. In addition to the nam pla they also offer seafood products like dried squid, salted fish and kapi, and operate as a family business.
They make the nam pla from pla kratak for their own consumption, but prepare it in sufficient quantity to let them sell it to customers who want to try it. Once the very limited stock runs out, however, there is a long wait until more becomes available.
For that reason, it is a good idea to phone in advance to make sure that there is some on hand. If there is, be sure to go and buy it immediately.
The phone number of Ran Phueng Klan is 08-9079-9704.
