Sa-wah-dee-kah!
Greetings from Temple of Thai!

May 2002 Thai Homestyle Cooking E-Newsletter:
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Featured Thai Ingredient: Fish Sauce
Special Readers Only Sale
Fish Sauce in Other Languages
A Visit to a Thai Fish Sauce Factory
How to Tell Which Fish Sauce Brands Are Good or Not?
Thai Homestyle Recipes: Two Recipes featuring Fish Sauce from Kasma
How to unsubscribe
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FEATURED INGREDIENT: Fish sauce ("Nahm pla")
Fish sauce is an indispensible staple of Thai cooking much like salt is in Western cooking. This odoriferous brown liquid is Thailand's soy sauce.
Various forms of sauces are derived from fermented fish throughout Asia, fish sauce being just one of them. Thai fish sauce in general is paler and milder than Vietnamese. On some bottles, especially those that originate in China, Hong Kong and the Philippines, the name may be 'fish gravy', but it is essentially the same as fish sauce.
Fish sauce was once even popular in the West. In ancient Rome, fish sauce was commercially produced as 'liquamen' or 'garem' and was one of the most common and strongest seasonings.
In addition to flavor, fish sauce provides protein and vitamin B. It can be stored up to a year without refrigeration.
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SPECIAL READERS ONLY SALE
These Sale Prices are not available on our web site (i.e. for newsletter readers only)! Quantities are limited, sale ends May 31, 2002 - so order today!
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RICE & NOODLES

Black sticky rice 5lb
- Becoming trendy in upscale American restaurants.
  Nutty like wild rice it can be served savory mixed with cooked jasmine rice or sweetened with coconut milk.
  Reg  5.99   4.99  

Vermicelli rice noodles
- Also called ‘sen-mee’, and in Chinese ‘may-fun’.
 Soak in cold water and add to stir fry or soups.
   Reg  1.99   1.79  

SAUCES

Fish sauce, Golden Boy 23oz     
- Top quality fish sauce
   imported from Thailand.
   Essential for authentic Thai taste.
   Reg 2.29   1.99  

Fish sauce, Tiparos 23oz     
- One of the most popular fish sauces in Thailand.
  Reg  1.99   1.59  

Sweet chile sauce, Mae Sri 7oz     
- Excellent with grilled chicken,
  sweet with just a hint of spicy.
  Very popular!
  Reg 1.99   1.75

PASTES

White limestone paste 4oz 
- Used to prepare Thai sweets.
   Reg 1.95   1.75  

Chile paste in oil, 'Nam Prik Pao', Pantainorasingh 16oz 
- Yummy! Eat with steamed
  jasmine rice as a condiment
  Or add to 'Tom Yum Soup'.
   Reg 3.39   2.99  

The fish sauce is started from very fresh fish, of the small variety, which are placed in concrete holding tanks along with salt (I think it is about a 3:2 weight ratio). It takes 5 to 7 kilograms of fish to make a liter of fish sauce of this quality. With a few interventions (periodically it is opened to the sun) they essentially let it sit for 18 months....By 18 months the liquid is virtually clear: the owner put a glass in, swirled it around and it came out looking like fine whisky. No liquid had been added and yet the tank, save for a crusting of salt around one edge, was nearly completely liquid.

Read the rest of this article at Thai cookbook author Kasma Loha-unchit's web site:

...look for fish sauce with a clear, reddish brown color, like the color of good whisky or sherry, without any sediments. If the color is a dark or muddy brown, the sauce is likely to be either a lower grade, or one that is not properly or naturally fermented; it may also have been sitting on the shelf a bit too long. Good fish sauce also has a pleasant aroma of the sea, not an overwhelming smelly fishiness, and should not be overly salty. If the bottle you have been using makes the dishes you cook taste too fishy, try a new brand.

Read the rest of this article at Thai cooking instructor Kasma Loha-unchit's web site: