Fish sauce

Nuoc-mâm

What it is

Anchovies and salt, stacked in wooden barrels under the tropical sun for a year — the direct heir of Rome’s garum, still pressed the old way in Cetara, Italy, as colatura. The first amber run of the barrel, nhĩ, is graded and prized like an extra-virgin oil.

In the kitchen

Smell the bottle, then trust the pot: cooked, it sheds its roar and leaves pure depth. A teaspoon secretly improves a bolognese or a vinaigrette.

Goes with

Chili pepper Garlic Ginger Peanut Beef Coconut milk

Also used with

Banana blossom Banana leaf Calamansi Star fruit Makrut lime Culantro

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