When I was in elementary school, I wondered what white kids ate for dinner. I honestly had no idea. At my house, it was always Vietnamese food. What do most Vietnamese dishes have in common?
Fish sauce.
This, my friends, is what makes me so Vietnamese. Like, I couldn’t possibly imagine my life without it. Not all fish sauces are equal, though–flavors are going to differ based on the country of origin. I learned this when I had to go buy this stuff here in Prince George.
Speaking of which, there’s only one store in all of Prince George that sells oriental goods. You know what its name is? The Chinese Store. That’s right. It’s The Chinese Store. You’d think the guy running it would be a total FOB, too, but he’s not (though it is possible that it’s a family business).
Anyway, when I went to go buy fish sauce here in Prince George, I asked the guy where I could find it. He then proceeded to ask me, “What country of origin?” It had never occurred to me before that very moment that there were different types of fish sauce.
Like, dang.
They didn’t have the usual Vietnamese brands that I’m used to seeing (the two bottles on the right in the picture), so I told the guy what I was making (spaghetti) and he picked one for me. I think the stuff I bought that day was from the Phillipines. Wasn’t the same, but my spaghetti sauce still turned out pretty awesome.
So yeah, fish sauce is awesome. Just sayin’. By the way, I’ll be posing for pictures using the A-OK symbol from now on.
[ image by wanderingchopsticks ]