The History of Fish Sauce

As it begins to get dark, the streets of Bangkok start to fill with hungry people, drawn by the intense aromas emanating from the endless street food stalls along the city streets. One of the characteristics of Thai cuisine is in fact the presence of very strong flavors and aromas that we Europeans are not used to, and that very often can even put us off, or even repel us. One of these particular aromas, which constantly hovers among these streets filled with flaming wok stations, is that of a product in Thailand called Nam Pla: it is fish sauce.

With a very liquid consistency and amber color, what is most striking about this sauce is its extremely pungent smell, which at first glance is undoubtedly uninviting. However, it is used a great deal in Thai cuisine, very often mixed with other sauces such as soy sauce and oyster sauce, and is a condiment that is used to add savoriness and a touch of umami to the dish, thus eliminating the use of salt. For example, in the preparation of Pad Thai, Thailand's national dish of stir-fried rice noodles, the sauce used is a mixture of fish sauce (salty part), tamarind paste (sour part) and palm sugar (sweet part).

Nam Pla sauce is not unique to Thailand, as it is typical throughout Southeast Asia. In Laos it is known as Nam Pa, while the Vietnamese version as Nuoc Mam; in Cambodia it is called Tik Trei, in China Yúlù, and in Japan Gyoshō. Apart from some local differences, the preparation of this sauce follows the same process: a mass of small fish, usually anchovies but in some cases also mackerel, is left to ferment in large tanks with salt, which by osmosis will extract the water from the flesh of the fish. The fermentation process can last from a few months to as long as two years.

The exact location of the origin of this sauce is unclear, however one of the oldest records of its production dates back to the time of Ancient Greece, in the Black Sea coast, where a condiment called gàros was produced through the fermentation of small fish with salt. After the Greeks it would be the turn of the Romans, with garum being widely used in their cuisine, as witnessed by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia, and Apicius in De re coquinaria. Some historians have gone so far as to speculate that fish sauce arrived in Southeast Asia through trade via the Silk Road: this, however, remains only a theory without solid confirmation. 

In conclusion, the history of fish sauce is an interesting example of how culinary culture and traditions can travel across centuries and continents, evolving and adapting to different geographical and cultural contexts. Fish sauce, which began as a simple condiment made from anchovies, has become a staple ingredient in Southeast Asian cuisine, characterizing many of the typical dishes of this region of the world. Similarly, the evolution of this product in other culinary cultures, as in the case of colatura di Alici di Cetara, demonstrates how Italian gastronomic traditions can also have ancient roots and fascinating connections to the cuisines of other parts of the world. Ultimately, the history of fish sauce teaches us that gastronomy knows no boundaries and that food can be a cultural bridge between peoples, fostering the exchange and sharing of knowledge and traditions.