As the largest island in Vietnam, Phu Quoc is blessed with year-round harmony of nature and abundant anchovy resources, which has given birth to the famous fish sauce making profession with a history of more than 200 years. One of the factors that makes Phu Quoc fish sauce unique and different is the incredibly meticulous and meticulous processing process. Let’s explore the fish sauce factory here to learn about this mysterious scent of the sea with Vietdreamtravel as below.
To have delicious drops of fish sauce, first of all, the fish sauce artisan needs to choose a source of quality anchovies. According to fishermen, the busiest anchovy fishing season is from July to December, which is also when the fish have the highest quality of the year.
After being pulled onto the boat, the anchovies will be filtered and washed with seawater and salted immediately to keep them fresh. The ratio must also meet the standard of 3 fish, 1 salt, so that Phu Quoc fish sauce is not too salty, but has a harmonious and mellow taste. The fish are then brought to barrel houses across the island to prepare for the next journey.
Here, the pickled fish is put into large wooden barrels, which can hold up to 15 tons of anchovies. The giant wooden barrels are up to 2.2 meters high, considered “treasures” of the island’s artisans and passed down from generation to generation.
It is known that making these wooden barrels also requires a lot of effort. The barrel craftsmen have to work for months, calculating every inch so that the wooden bars fit tightly together, avoiding leakage. The wood used to make the barrels is selected from Phu Quoc’s typical woods for high durability. A long-time fish sauce artisan said that wooden barrels are an important factor that brings the characteristic flavor and color of Phu Quoc fish sauce.
In addition to wooden barrels, the fermentation process by anaerobic compression, keeping the natural fermentation process still for a long time, sometimes up to nearly a year, is also one of the prerequisites for the finished fish sauce to achieve a shimmering brown color and characteristic aroma.
The rustic yet sturdy beauty of the giant wooden barrels inside the Nam Ngu fish sauce barrel house, one of the largest barrel houses in Phu Quoc. It is known that this barrel house has nearly 150 wooden barrels for fermenting fish sauce. The production volume is so “huge”, but the experienced fish sauce experts at the fish sauce barrel house in Phu Quoc still diligently check the quality of the fish sauce every day. To ensure that every drop of fish sauce produced meets the delicious and full standard, without adding or subtracting.
After nearly a year of hard work and meticulousness, the bottles of Phu Quoc fish sauce with its rich, shiny, delicious and harmonious aroma have finally reached the kitchen shelves of millions of Vietnamese people, and filled with the trust of more than 80 million people across Vietnam.
Source: collected by An
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