# Fish Oil vs Fish Sauce - Help? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 3, 2010, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-oil-vs-fish-sauce-help/523469 "2010-01-03T02:31:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Taenia\_spp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@Taenia\_spp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taenia_spp)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2010, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-oil-vs-fish-sauce-help/523469/21 "2010-01-04T07:35:09Z")
I think there’s an important distinction to be made between fish sauces: filtered (light) and unfiltered. For heavier curries and such, one typically uses the stronger, ‘rank’, fermented, unfiltered fish sauce, a sauce that resembles a gray paste. However, what you were probably served was a filtered fish sauce that is mostly salt water with a hint of fish undertones. Around here, the predominant premium brand of filtered fish sauce is the **Three Crabs Brand**. ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-oil-vs-fish-sauce-help/523469/22 "2010-01-04T20:50:52Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > Oh, and bought the ‘Salt’ book today. Right up my alley! I love interesting non-fiction; my jaw’s on the ground at the engineering of the Chinese. Just so incredible. I’ve not read the Salt book yet, but the book on Cod, from the same author was amazing. Salt is now on my list of books to download to my mp3 player. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-oil-vs-fish-sauce-help/523469/23 "2010-01-06T01:27:20Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > Well, fish sauce straight from the bottle is extremely rank… a whiff of the bottle and it smells like rotting fish, sounds like you had a prepared condiment with fish sauce as a component, like the nam prik plaa described above… not nuoc mam straight up. Straight up fish sauce is not usually sour as you described, very salty and slightly sweet… that tart would probably be lime and it goes a long way towards cutting the fishieness. > [@pulykamell](#): > > Most Thai fish sauce I’ve had isn’t what I’d call rank. It’s just pungent. The ones that I’ve found to be rank are some of the Filipino varieties (Rufina fish sauce, in particular, makes me want to gag.) As for the Thai ones, the brand I like that is easy to find is Squid-brand fish sauce. If by “pungent”, you mean that it smells like a mackerel’s asshole, then yea. I mean, I can bullshit him and say it smells like twinklebell’s pussy, but when you are smelling the effluent of rotting and fermenting fish assholes, it’s pretty much all a matter of degrees of how much it smells like a mackerel’s rotting asshole. Don’t get me wrong, I love Fish sauce, and I’ve had the Philipino variety and some very good “light” Thai and Vietnamese varieties and even they don’t use it straight from the bottle much, it is most often an ingredient to food or condimented. ---
**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:** [January 6, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-oil-vs-fish-sauce-help/523469/24 "2010-01-06T01:59:38Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > If by “pungent”, you mean that it smells like a mackerel’s asshole, then yea. I mean, I can bullshit him and say it smells like twinklebell’s pussy, but when you are smelling the effluent of rotting and fermenting fish assholes, it’s pretty much all a matter of degrees of how much it smells like a mackerel’s rotting asshole. I suppose, but there’s just certain brands that I find difficult to choke down–they have a bit of an “ammonia” flavor/scent or something to them. Others, I can do shots of and love the smell of (like Squid brand.) I usually use about 1/3 cup of fish sauce per pound of chicken in my stir-fried basil chicken and once I bought a Filipino patis and I had to really try hard to finish that dish. There was another smell in there–one that reminded me of a fermented Swedish “delicacy” called surstromming–that wasn’t present in the Thai brands I’ve had. Squid-brand or Three Crabs or Thai Kitchen doesn’t smell or taste like “mackerel assholes” to me. Whatever Filipino stuff I bought (and I think it’s Rufina), sure does. Squid is made from anchovies, so that could possibly be part of it. I think Rufina is made from a different mix of fish. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-oil-vs-fish-sauce-help/523469/25 "2010-01-06T04:00:08Z")
Wow…ok, whatever I had really didn’t taste like fish at all, which is why I was surprised it was fish oil \. Very salty, yes, but it had…layers! And looked so clear, not all brown and thick the way I always imagined ‘fish sauce’ would be. I can easily imagine it was fish sauce, yes, with fish, but…wow. So good. I never even put it on anything. I was just tasting it plain, to explore what it was, and kept on doing it. And thank you for the varied recommendations and info; I know now that if the first fish sauce I try isn’t to my taste, to keep trying, since it seems there are a variety. p.s. I _did_ in fact pour some onto the chopped cucumber salad, toward the end. VERY GOOD!! \ ---
**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:** [January 6, 2010, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-oil-vs-fish-sauce-help/523469/26 "2010-01-06T06:25:03Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > Wow…ok, whatever I had really didn’t taste like fish at all, which is why I was surprised it was fish oil \. Very salty, yes, but it had…layers! As has been mentioned, your version was prepared with lime and hot peppers, but the straight stuff–at least the anchovies-and-salt ones I like–aren’t particularly “fishy,” either, at least not to me. The stuff is awesome–I far prefer it to soy sauce for salting up stir fries. And don’t stop just there–use fish sauce wherever you want that little umami kick. I even sometimes put a little bit in tomato pasta sauce (using them in the same way I would anchovies). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-oil-vs-fish-sauce-help/523469.md?page=1)