Phu Loi village is located next to the Hoang Mai river mouth, every day boats come and go fishing, this place has a traditional profession of making delicious fish sauce and shrimp floss. For hundreds of years, the people of Phu Loi village have always been proud of their hometown's special fish sauce products. Therefore, at the end of this year, when you set foot here, you can smell the characteristic aroma of fish sauce, fish and the salty taste of the sea.
On the small roads leading to the village, you can see jars, pots or large plastic barrels used to ferment fish sauce. Locals say that Phu Loi fish sauce tastes better the longer it is stored, it has a golden brown color and is thick, very different from fish sauces in other regions.
Stopping by Mr. Tran Van Tuan's fish sauce production facility in Phu Loi 2 block, you will see dozens of large plastic barrels lined up on the outdoor cement floor.
Mr. Tuan said that the specialty of making fish sauce is that anyone can do it, but not everyone can make good fish sauce. The fish sauce here is made entirely from anchovies (anchovies) caught from the ocean. But to make delicious drops of fish sauce, the fish selection process must be very careful. The fresher the fish, the better the quality of the fish sauce.
Phu Loi fish sauce usually has 3 types, of which type 1 is the best. According to Mr. Tuan, to produce drops of type 1 fish sauce, the fermentation time is from 16 to 24 months, type 2 is from 6 months to 1 year. Normally, 1 quintal of fish needs 25 to 27 kg of salt. The salt used to ferment fish sauce must be very dry. Many establishments such as Tam Suu, Anh Son, Quang Chinh... do not have enough goods to sell during Tet.
To make the sea salt really dry, use old salt that has been made 5-6 months ago. The anchovies are mixed with the salt and put into the fermentation tank, then bamboo sheets are placed on top and stones are used to press it down.
During the incubation period, you must not take your eyes off it, you must take care of it and monitor it closely. You must let it “eat” the sun and avoid the rain. The sun must “eat” evenly, and the rain must be avoided carefully, so each barrel has a careful lid. On sunny days, open the lid and stir it evenly so that the fish cooks quickly and the water is clear. In the fish sauce fermentation tank, people used to use cement jars, but now they have replaced them with composite plastic barrels that are lighter and cleaner. Each plastic barrel can incubate 1 ton of fish.
In addition, to make delicious fish sauce, in the past, people here also added rice bran made from roasted rice and sesame to enhance the aroma and give it a golden brown color. But now people use dried soybean powder, giving the fish sauce a more beautiful honey yellow color. After being drawn from the tank, the fish sauce must be filtered many times to ensure there is no residue.
Usually, fish are collected to make fish sauce from January to March every year, when the boats return with holds full of anchovies.
"During normal months of the year, my family sells 3,000 liters of fish sauce, but this Tet month, the amount of fish sauce supplied to the market increased to 6,000 liters, mainly the best type," said Mr. Tran Van Tuan.
In addition to fish sauce, Phu Loi village is also famous for its delicious shrimp paste that is rarely found elsewhere. Compared to fish sauce, the time to make shrimp paste is shorter, only 5-6 months. Not only that, the raw material to make shrimp paste is the moi (sea shrimp), so it becomes a rustic, inexpensive dish.
Thanks to the hard-working, skillful, patient and above all devoted hands of the Phu Loi fish sauce makers, they have captured the consumer market not only in the region, but also in districts and towns in the province, as well as other provinces such as Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City... and even followed relatives and friends to other countries.
Mr. Ho Huu Tho - Vice Chairman of Quynh Di Ward People's Committee said: Phu Loi village, divided into 2 blocks, in Quynh Di ward, currently has 509 households, of which 115 households are engaged in fish sauce production. This profession was passed down from grandparents and ancestors and is also a profession that brings in significant income. Every year, the whole village produces 2.9 million liters of fish sauce, however, in the last month of the year near Tet, the amount of fish sauce sold in Phu Loi village to the market is about 500,000 liters.
In 2008, Phu Loi village was recognized as a traditional craft village. A few years ago, members of the craft village established the Quynh Di fish sauce cooperative, in which the fish sauce products of 2 members of the cooperative achieved 3 OCOP stars at the provincial level./.
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