"Golden Drop" of the Sea

Born and raised next to her mother's fish sauce jars, then following her mother to choose and salt fish, the salty flavor distilled from the products of the ocean seeped into Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, Thai Lai village, Vinh Thai commune, Vinh Linh district, without her knowing. Then, with her love for fish sauce, together with her relatives, she created the famous Xuan Thinh Mau brand.

Pure anchovies - the secret to creating a brand

From early morning, when the ship just docked at Cua Tung fishing port, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, Thai Lai village, Vinh Thai commune, Vinh Linh district, was waiting to choose each batch of fresh anchovies. According to Ms. Van, for people in the Central region in particular or the whole country in general, a family meal cannot be without a bowl of fish sauce. However, depending on each region, each locality, each family has its own secret, each chooses its own type of fish to make fish sauce. For her, the fish to make fish sauce must be anchovies, carefully selected, absolutely not mixed with other types of fish to ensure harmony between protein content and aroma for each drop of fish sauce. "Anchovies live on the surface, eat phytoplankton, and move seasonally. Anchovies have clean intestines and few intestines, so they have a pure and stable protein content. Therefore, anchovy fish sauce is clearer, brighter, and has less strong smell. Choosing fresh anchovies, without other mixed fish, is a prerequisite for having fish sauce “like our grandparents left behind,” Ms. Van affirmed.

Xuan Thinh Mau fish sauce is chosen by many customers as a gift for relatives - Photo: LA

The batches of fish that Ms. Van chooses are usually transparent, the fish still have the white chalk lines running along their bodies and are always fresh. Notably, she only chooses fish to make fish sauce in the 2nd and 8th lunar months every year because this is the breeding season of anchovies, increasing the protein content and aroma of the finished fish sauce.

Ms. Van said that in the past, when she was still making a small amount, to have good drops of fish sauce, she had to go out to sea from dawn, waiting for the earliest boats to dock to choose the freshest fish. Now that she makes more, about 15 tons of fish each year, she orders according to her standards from fishing boats and buys them at prices 1.5 - 2 times higher than the market price. “The anchovies to make fish sauce, according to my requirements, must be fresh and I only buy fish caught within 4 hours. So after catching them, the fishing boats have to bring them to shore immediately.

During that process, the fish must not be allowed to come into direct contact with ice, but must be kept cold in the hold. Everyone says I am picky, but few people know that this is the first step in the process of making pure, high-quality fish sauce,” Ms. Van shared.

According to Ms. Van, only anchovies can produce a high amount of natural protein, up to 40 degrees of protein, in fish sauce. This is also the highest amount of natural protein that can be obtained in traditionally produced fish sauce. The purity of fish sauce comes from the pure anchovy raw material, without any impurities. The fish are fermented in earthenware jars for a long time, from 1.5 to 2 years, enough to create a natural fermentation process, without any additives.

Made with all our heart

According to Ms. Van, until now, her childhood memories of fish sauce are still intact. Because it is associated with the salty taste of the sea, the strong smell of fermented fish, associated with the days of standing in the sun to "stir and dry" her mother's fish sauce jars... All of these have created her strong love for fish sauce, and then with her diligence and hard work, from a few jars of fish sauce used in the family, in 2013, Ms. Van and her brother opened a fish sauce processing workshop. On a fairly large piece of land, at first there were only a few jars of fish sauce, which were then gradually increased to hundreds of jars. Ms. Van's hard work gave birth to Xuan Thinh Mau fish sauce.

Xuan Thinh Mau fish sauce is made by Ms. Van from fresh anchovies, not mixed with other fish - Photo: LA

Coastal people believe that each drop of fish sauce is a “drop of gold”, a gift from the sea. Ms. Van said that she makes fish sauce with the first thought of making it for her family to use, not for profit. After buying each batch of anchovies, she quickly filters out all the trash fish, then applies her family’s long-standing fish sauce recipe, which is salting in a ratio of 3 fish to 1 salt.

After being mixed with salt, the anchovies are put into earthenware jars and “stirred” continuously every day for the first 3 months, then “stirred” once every 10-20 days. The fish must “sunny” for 18-24 months, then drawn into a warehouse and transferred to a finished product factory in Ho Chi Minh City for bottling before being sold on the market.

“Currently, the facility produces about 10,000 liters of finished fish sauce each year and sells it on the market for about 300,000 - 360,000 VND/liter. Xuan Thinh Mau fish sauce is packaged in glass bottles with a volume of 0.2 - 0.5 liters with eye-catching designs, suitable for use as well as gifts during holidays and Tet,” Ms. Van happily said.

Full of love

Up to now, Ms. Van and her family have been involved in this job for more than 10 years. Although the time is not too long, it is enough for her to see more clearly why she has to devote so much passion to her job. Looking at her petite figure, taking care of each jar of fish sauce like taking care of a "baby", we understand that for Ms. Van, fish sauce is not just a condiment but has become a product that preserves the "soul" of her homeland. According to Ms. Van, the point to emphasize is that fish sauce made from fish contains amino acids, which are the product of the natural fermentation process of protein in fish.

Xuan Thinh Mau fish sauce is proud to be a fish sauce that contains 12 types of amino acids that the human body cannot synthesize on its own. These are nutrients that only fish sauce has. Xuan Thinh Mau fish sauce contains 60% - 75% amino acid protein in total protein, which industrially produced fish sauce cannot have.

“The beneficial nutrients in fish sauce are amino acids, nothing else. Without amino acid requirements, it is just a dipping sauce,” Ms. Van firmly asserted.

Ms. Van admits that the price of a liter of her traditional fish sauce is quite high compared to other mixed fish sauces. “Many people have asked me why I don’t reduce the price or use mixing methods... or use yeast to reduce the fermentation time.

That is, instead of having a batch of standard traditional fish sauce, which usually takes 18 - 24 months, with the above method, it can be reduced to 8 - 12 months, or adding water, and padding batches of fish sauce with lower protein content to increase production. I absolutely do not do it that way. If I do that, the cost can certainly be reduced, but then the value of the bottle of pure fish sauce will be gone.

A bottle of delicious traditional fish sauce, when tasted, will have an initial tingling sensation on the tip of the tongue due to the high protein content. First is the salty taste, then the sweet taste, then lingers in the throat with a sweet, mild aroma that gradually spreads. We believe that fish sauce is a product of love, made by grandmothers, mothers, and sisters with diligence, diligence, and care over 18 - 24 months.

This fermentation process also makes fish sauce the only dish that absorbs the essence of the four seasons: spring - summer - autumn - winter. And any dish seasoned with "love" becomes much more delicious. Like the two verses that Professor Tran Van Khe dedicated when tasting Xuan Thinh Mau fish sauce: Making fish sauce and writing poetry. Keeping the motherland peaceful, now and in the future", Ms. Van shared.

Le An

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