Oh hot pot sauce…

Like the hierarchy in a certain definition, fish sauce is a dish reserved for the class that still has many difficulties to survive. But I dimly realized that the fish house society still has its own rules and voices.
first. When I was a child, when I was a child, I loved to play, often messed up, dirty, writing like crabs and cows, my mother often scolded me, used a chicken feather broom to beat my ass with flowers and leaves. She told me, if I don’t worry about studying, I will enjoy the days of herding ducks and “eating fish sauce to attract maggots”. I have known fish sauce since the very first day of my childhood.

Like the hierarchy in a certain definition, fish sauce is a dish reserved for the class that still has many difficulties to survive. But I dimly realized that the fish house society still has its own rules and voices. The snakehead fish sauce is cooked with pork fat, sugar + monosodium glutamate + ground pepper, dipped with boiled okra or cucumber, or eaten with purple potato soup cooked with shrimp or minced meat only for the wealthy. The pot of braised fish sauce is even more remote because it is expensive when it comes to bacon, snakehead fish and silver shrimp, … I choose friends with a cup of fish sauce very early. My mother told me to buy a tamarind from her sister’s 5 Pieces, go back and eat with cold rice. Selling sour tamarind to Saigon with lots of zinc, needing to be tall, sister 5 is young but likes to eat betel nut. She’s so cute, she never takes money and keeps telling me to eat as much as I can. Mam ruoc is no longer lonely when choking fish comes to share joy and sorrow. My mother and I often sit and tear fish sauce and eat it raw with herbs, banana chips + star fruit and cold rice. Asking the elders in the West, I received the answer: the West knows how to make fish sauce from Indonesia and snakehead fish sauce is suggested by Khmer people. 2. Lost in the youth in Can Tho for 5 years and 11 months, I know Tay Do is very famous for hot pot with fish sauce, but I have never tried it, because the dish with a lot of money is only for receiving precious guests. Time has passed, it has also been windy and rainy and we know each other a lot, in my eyes, the South is the path of fish sauce and islet pot (hot pot), like a familiar saying from friends: If you don’t eat fish sauce, you are not a local West!. In my young years, I still don’t have a satisfactory answer when Chau Doc – An Giang and Ca Mau are always affectionately called “the kingdom or land of fish sauce”, but Can Tho is resounding with fish sauce hotpot. Asking the elders in the West, I received the answer: the West knows how to make fish sauce from Indonesia and snakehead fish sauce is suggested by Khmer people. Borrowing the method of making beef sauce from snakehead fish in the Ho Sea, Can Tho is the economic center of the Southern Continent, where “white rice with clear water” has created a method of fermenting fish with Vietnamese identity: using Listen to fermented roasted rice, instead of cold rice. The Khmer people are sincere and honest, but the cuisine is still entangled in the wild. Living in harmony between the two rainy and sunny seasons along the Mekong River, both the Khmer and the Southern people gradually perfect the rustic dishes from fish sauce. Khmer people in the West know how to apply more spices to make beef sauce wrapped in green banana leaves more fragrant. Snakehead fish in the pot of braised fish of the West is replaced with basa or howling fish for fatter. At that time, when I heard about the original way of fermenting beef sauce, I did not dare to eat it, not to mention the stories of weaving and adding charms from folk about the Khmer. Then I try to practice and feel very delicious! 3. The time I had a meal in Phnom Penh, it was so delicious with Prahok Kob. Mixed beef sauce with bacon + beef and dangerous chili, wrapped in green banana leaves and grilled on charcoal. Just raw cucumber, eggplant and vermicelli, mixed with fish sauce, I’m full, I don’t care about other dishes… That night, I also learned the national spirit of the Khmer people through the mouth-watering saying “No prahok, no salt”, deeply understood: without beef sauce, the meal cannot be delicious! Southeast Asian countries all have their own “country spirit”, which I have also tasted such as Ngapi – Burma, Kapi – Thailand, Trasi and Petis udang – Indonesia, Bagoong – Philippine, Belacan – Malaysia, Padaek – Laos, … In my eyes, Vietnam deserves to be the “Lord of fish”. The variety and abundance is so rich that I cannot count all the separate categories by region… 4. The rain is pouring heavily, eating fish sauce to realize the bold, honest, and innocent features of the old countryside. Processing is as easy as the identity and life of the fish, when the fish is choked with a little water, boil it to get the juice. If you want the fish sauce to be strong or light, depending on the amount of fresh coconut water you add to dilute the fish sauce. Bring to a boil again, I season to taste. Among the spices I’ve tried, for me, garlic and lemongrass are the best, so I minced them and put them in the hot pot to add extra fat. Looking at the plate of meat, everyone will be amazed, but those who like to eat fish have the same opinion: the best is to eat vegetables with fish sauce! When I cook hotpot, I think of my mother, because she foresaw my fortune: old age, no job to earn money, so I have to eat fish sauce to change day by day…