Nam Pla Brands: Your Favorite?

[Knicke]

So, I'm all excited about cooking Thai for myself...but I want to use the good stuff! What brand should I look for? Can anyone describe differences in taste, etc.?

Thanks!

[snowangel]

I grew up in Thailand, and we always used Tiparos, so that's what I use now.

Make sure you don't get something that is made in the U. S. As I recall, someone not too long ago described a nam pla that had sugar in it! The ingredients should be anchovy extract, salt and water. I've never used Vietnamese fish sauce, but I do believe there are subtle differences between Thai and Vietnamese. Perhaps someone else can comment on this. The stuff keeps virtually forever, but does seem to get darker in color over time, and a really old bottle might have a chunk of salt in the bottom. At our local Asian markets, the stuff is really cheap, so you might want to get a couple of different brands and do a taste test.

[FoodZealot]

There was some good discussion here on this Fish Sauce thread.

[Knicke]

Thanks, Zealot! I knew I had seen a thread like this, but it didn't come up on any of my searches...weird.

[msphoebe]

A year plus after the original post, here is a reply, of sorts. I find Kasma Loha-Unchit's website to be incredibly interesting and have learned lots about Thai cooking. The link below will take you to informative articles about how fish sauce is made, and a visit to a Thai fish sauce factory, as well as how to use fish sauce in cooking.

http://thaifoodandtravel.com/ingredients/fishsauce.html

Enjoy!

[NickV]

I'm using tiparos at the moment, and I like it. I also like three crabs brand. Also, there's a brand with a picture of a baby sitting on top of the world (I think). That one wasn't bad either.

[johnnyd]

I have a bottle of tiparos too but it's three years old. According to the table of condiments it only lasts five months.

Is this true? I've tasted a few bottles with a salt cake too. Are they over a year old? I think it tastes fine and does to the dish what I want it to do, but I wonder.

[chromedome]

Also, there's a brand with a picture of a baby sitting on top of the world (I think). That one wasn't bad either.

That would be Golden Boy brand, I do believe. That's the one I've got in my cupboard.

[LaurieA-B]

I have a bottle of tiparos too but it's three years old.  According to the table of condiments it only lasts five months.

That table looks nuts to me. Whipped cream will last for two weeks, but yellow mustard only lasts for 6-8 months? I don't think so. I'm no expert but I wouldn't worry much about the age of fish sauce.

[mamster]

Knicke, I use Baby (aka Golden Boy) brand, but it really doesn't matter that much for most uses. Like any ingredient, it's possible to get obsessive about fish sauce, but I find all the major brands just fine. Look for a short ingredient list, and buy a glass bottle. I go through a 725 ml bottle in three to six months, depending on how much I'm cooking, but I wouldn't worry about year-old fish sauce. It will darken, but it won't affect the flavor, and there's a ton of salt in there.

Oh, Baby does have sugar in it, but clearly not a lot.

[Richard Kilgore]

Snowangel -- I bought a bottle of Tiparos a couple of weeks ago. A fellow shopper, a Thai woman, said it was what she uses. It was in a plastic bottle. Is that the right stuff?

[mamster]

Richard, my recommendation of the glass bottle may be superstitious -- I'm inferring that if bottled water starts to taste weird and plasticky a couple of days after opening, so will fish sauce. There could be any number of reasons why this isn't true, however. Anyone know?

[Al_Dente]

I picked up a bottle recently that I haven't tried yet. It's called "Cock". Seriously.

So, has anyone here had.....

Nevermind.

[mrbigjas]

I have a bottle of tiparos too but it's three years old.  According to the table of condiments it only lasts five months.

Is this true? I've tasted a few bottles with a salt cake too. Are they over a year old?  I think it tastes fine and does to the dish what I want it to do, but I wonder.

I read an article in the Economist about Vietnamese food and international conglomerates, in which... hang on I'll find it...

Click.

from the article:

...one impassioned Vietnamese argues, the comparison is inadequate, since fish sauce is a more sophisticated product than wine: only a tiny number of wines survive longer than 50 years, whereas fish sauce continues to grow in flavour and complexity indefinitely. The wood of the barrels in which it ferments, the quality of the anchovies and salt from which it is made, the weather and temperature during the fermentation process—all these factors, he explains with a faraway look in his eyes, affect the flavour of the finished product.

[Big Bunny]

I would replace a plastic bottle with glass, though.

BB

[snowangel]

Snowangel -- I bought a bottle of Tiparos a couple of weeks ago. A fellow shopper, a Thai woman, said it was what she uses. It was in a plastic bottle. Is that the right stuff?

Yes, this is the stuff. I picked up a bottle out of my folks basement 10 years after they brought it back to the States from Thailand (it was unopened) and was the best bottle ever. It did have salty "sediment" at the bottom, but was absolutely beyond belief.

Like I said, this is the stuff on which I grew up. It was the prefered brand of cooks in Thailand, at least 30 years ago.

[foodie52]

My sister in law is Thai and she went to culinary school in Bangkok. She told me not to buy fish sauce in plastic bottles.

She likes the Three Crabs.

[trillium]

Knicke, I use Baby (aka Golden Boy) brand, but it really doesn't matter that much for most uses. Like any ingredient, it's possible to get obsessive about fish sauce, but I find all the major brands just fine. Look for a short ingredient list, and buy a glass bottle. I go through a 725 ml bottle in three to six months, depending on how much I'm cooking, but I wouldn't worry about year-old fish sauce. It will darken, but it won't affect the flavor, and there's a ton of salt in there.

Oh, Baby does have sugar in it, but clearly not a lot.

Call me obsessive, but I think the brand makes a huge difference, especially for salads and dipping sauces. In my mind it's like saying all wine tastes the same...which I guess it does to a certain extent. We did a tasting with 6 or 7 brands and picked a favorite for cooking and a favorite for using tableside. The differences between brands is remarkable, and they're so inexpensive it's fun to try them all.

regards,

trillium

[Knicke]

Hmm, I'm getting no real definitive answers here, folks! Other than, "it's a matter of personal opinion". Sheesh. So I guess what I'll do is see what's available where I live (not much choice there, I suspect ), and start working my way down the list I've compiled from y'all. I would love to get them all in one place, trillium, and try the taste test you suggest, but a) I'm just getting started on my Thai cooking adventure, so I'm not sure I'm at the point of needing several varieties for different applications and b) I have a small kitchen and hate waste, so I'd be asking for excessive clutter (keeping 'em all) or excessive guilt (throwing out the less desirables).

Thanks for the opinions, everyone!

*edited for spellin'

Edited August 5, 2004 by Knicke (log)

[Knicke]

Incidentally, trillium, what brands did you pick for cooking vs. tableside? Just curious.

[msphoebe]

While I'm not saying Three Crabs is good or bad, here is what Kasma Loha-Unchit has to say about the product (for those who weren't interested in the link above):

I do not personally recommend Three Crabs Brand, which several Asian cookbook authors recommend, mainly because it does not appear to be a naturally fermented fish sauce but is, rather, a flavor-enhanced, processed food product. According to the label, hydrolyzed wheat protein and fructose are among the ingredients -- both are additives that have not been adequately time-tested for their potential long-term effects on health. Their inclusion suggests that the sauce is made through the process of hydrolysis, whereby a catalyst (sometimes from chemical sources) is added to hasten fermentation, allowing the company to produce large quantities of the product in shorter periods of time than would be required in natural fermentation.

I personally use Golden Boy.

[trillium]

Incidentally, trillium, what brands did you pick for cooking vs. tableside? Just curious.

We picked Tra Chang (the balance brand with the red label) for cooking and this one I'm blanking on the name for tableside. It's got a yellow label, a gold coin and two silver fish on it. It frequently comes with a little "sample" bottle attached to it that we like to take to work and stick in a drawer. Tra Chang had the deepest nuttiest notes to our tastes, while this other (Phu something...) had a very floral, aromatic taste to it and is less salty.

mamster is right, though, that nearly any good brand you buy with with a minimal ingredient list will do you well.

We were lucky that we had access to a really fabulous Thai grocery store run by Thais who liked to cook when we were in Chicago. They loved sharing their favorite brands with us and talking about food. I still get my friends to go there to buy my fermented shrimp paste and dried shrimp. When a guy from Bombay (my friend) walked in and pulled a tub of Klong Kohn shrimp paste of the shelf that really provoked a reaction. They wanted to know how he knew the best one to buy. He was just going by the picture I had scanned in and emailed to him with my shopping list!

regards,

trillium

[takadi]

I'm pretty sure you are talking about Phu Quoc. It's hard to find the real thing in stores nowadays (I think there are some legal issues involved for copyrighting to prevent fraud, like they do with wine). Phu Quoc is basically the king of all fish sauces. Phu Quoc has sold some of its rights to Knorr, so nowadays the "real thing" is sold under that brand, although with preservatives

For vietnamese fish sauces, they indicate the highest grade with the word "nhi" or "thuong hang", which is akin to using "extra virgin". The two best fish sauces made in Vietnam are from Phu Quoc and Phan Thiet, kinda of like Modena and Reggio Emilia for balsamic vinegar

Btw, what were some reasons why Tra Chang made a good cooking fish sauce?

Edited April 7, 2008 by takadi (log)