# Can't I just leave out the fish sauce? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 28, 2006, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-i-just-leave-out-the-fish-sauce/385871 "2006-12-28T16:35:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2006, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-i-just-leave-out-the-fish-sauce/385871/41 "2006-12-29T18:10:56Z")
Fish Sauce may be Southeast Asian, but it makes a great Roman _garum_. Try splashing fish sauce and honey over some peach halves before roasting them. Yummy. It doesn’t sound like it should be, but it is. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-i-just-leave-out-the-fish-sauce/385871/42 "2006-12-29T23:25:57Z")
You know, I just had some chicken pad thai last night and it tasted very familiar, very much like what we get at a lot of Thai places. And it did have a characteristic taste, underneath all the normal chicken/pad thai flavors - and I noted a definite fish-ish taste/smell in that flavor. I’d never thought about it before, nor paid any attention to it, but it IS a characteristic taste, and it IS very slightly fishy, and unless it was prepared near fish stuff - which this place has very little of - I’m guessing that it was the fish sauce that I detected. And IF that is fhe case, when I make my chicken curry, I’m going to put in some. Probably less than is called for, but more than none. I think I get it. ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2006, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-i-just-leave-out-the-fish-sauce/385871/43 "2006-12-29T23:31:02Z")
You won’t be sorry 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-i-just-leave-out-the-fish-sauce/385871/44 "2006-12-30T04:54:55Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] and We pardon you. Just saying that they are not to be added to a finished meal or had on their own. [/QUOTE] There’s nothing wrong, as far as I know, to adding fish sauce after the meal has been cooked. I do it all the time when I make gai pad gaprao (Thai holy basil chicken). I can’t get enough of fish sauce. It’s one of my favorite condiments out there, and marries well with lime, uncooked, and chili peppers for a dipping sauce and salad dressing. I’ve even been known to put it on my _gasp_ … pierogi (shh!! Don’t tell my Polish parents.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-i-just-leave-out-the-fish-sauce/385871/45 "2006-12-30T04:58:09Z")
[Here’s a cite on using fish sauce.](http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/features/fishsauce2.html) > [@](#): > > Fish Golden Boy Fish Sauce sauce Tra Chang Fish Sauceis so prevalently used throughout Southeast Asia that to come up with a single set of guidelines is almost impossible, as each culture has its own preferred strength of fish sauce and how to use it in its cuisine. As an example, I once heard a Vietnamese cook say that the primary rule in using fish sauce is never to use it straight, as it can make food taste too fishy. I, myself, use fish sauce straight all the time in my Thai cooking with wonderful results. But then, Thai cuisine, in general, is much more robustly flavored; good quality Thai fish sauce is also milder and less fishy. > > In fact, the Thai equivalent of salt and pepper at the dinner table is a simple mixture of Thai chiles (bird peppers) and fish sauce (3-5 chiles cut into thin rounds with seeds to 2 Tbs. fish sauce), whereas the Vietnamese equivalent, called “nuoc cham,” dilutes fish sauce with an equal amount of water and to this mixture is added vinegar, lime juice, sugar and a touch of crushed chile (see recipe). Because of its tangy sour flavor, “nuoc cham” is more than just salt and pepper, and serves as an all-purpose dipping sauce (e.g. for egg rolls), as well as a dressing for salads. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-i-just-leave-out-the-fish-sauce/385871/46 "2006-12-30T14:42:57Z")
[QUOTE=Anne Neville] It’s nearly impossible to find fish sauce that you can be sure doesn’t contain non-kosher fish (though I did find a vegetarian “fish sauce” recently that I can’t wait to try out), so I always substitute soy sauce for it in a recipe. I’ve seen that recommended by several vegetarian cookbooks. [/QUOTE] Do you recall the brand of the vegetarian version? It kills me to substitute soy knowing that it’s not nearly ideal. ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-i-just-leave-out-the-fish-sauce/385871/47 "2006-12-30T17:09:22Z")
Have any of you read the “History of Salt” It is quite interesting in tracing the common origins of garum, fish sauce, ketchup etc. I apologise for the hijack but I just had to mention it. I really like fish sauce and add extra when I have Thai food, I don’t think it has a fishy taste any more than Worcestire shire sauce tastes fishy. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2006, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-i-just-leave-out-the-fish-sauce/385871/48 "2006-12-31T00:14:43Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] … That said, Worcestershire sauce and Fish sauce do not taste similarly at all. Do not substitute either for the other (unless you are really into fusion cuisine) [/QUOTE] Forgive me if I wasn’t clear. I didn’t mean to say that fish sauce is the same as Worcestershire sauce. I was trying to say, for those who shuddered at the thought of tasting fermented anchovies, that they had probably eaten some already. The “Wooster” might be an interesting ingredient in a freewheeling Asian-like sauce, but, no, it isn’t fish sauce. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-i-just-leave-out-the-fish-sauce/385871/49 "2007-01-04T02:53:34Z")
[QUOTE=Ferret Herder] Do you recall the brand of the vegetarian version? It kills me to substitute soy knowing that it’s not nearly ideal. [/QUOTE] I’m at home, and have the bottle with me, though it’s not terribly helpful. I think the brand name is “Super.Q” It says it’s bottled for Yue King Fung Trading Co. Hong Kong. We found it at a little family-owned market in Oakland that, although it isn’t in Chinatown, does sell quite a few Asian foods. Sorry I can’t help you more… ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-i-just-leave-out-the-fish-sauce/385871/50 "2007-01-04T03:03:19Z")
[QUOTE=Anne Neville] Sorry I can’t help you more… [/QUOTE] [This](http://www.merde.org/recipes/curry.txt) sounds better than the real stuff: > [@Link](#): > > Vegetarian Fish Sauce Substitute > (from the Sundays at Moosewood cookbook) > > make a strong vegetable stock that is heavy on onions > and black peppercorns. for each 2 tbsp of fish sauce > called for, substitute 2 tbsp. of the stock plus 1/2 > to 1 tsp. of salt. (if substituting for shrimp paste, > use the full teaspoon of salt.) ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-i-just-leave-out-the-fish-sauce/385871/51 "2007-01-04T03:51:11Z")
Thanks for the suggestions! As for the second suggestion, I’m not a fan of onions but maybe with it being cooked down with lots of pepper it’ll taste better. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-i-just-leave-out-the-fish-sauce/385871/52 "2007-01-04T03:59:22Z")
[QUOTE=Ferret Herder] I’m not a fan of onions but maybe with it being cooked down with lots of pepper it’ll taste better. 🙂 [/QUOTE] I was thinking shallots. Anyone know of a vegetarian oyster sauce? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-i-just-leave-out-the-fish-sauce/385871.md?page=2)