As the largest island in Vietnam, Phu Quoc is blessed with year-round harmony with nature and abundant anchovy resources, which have given rise 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 is its incredibly meticulous processing. Let’s explore the fish sauce factory here to learn about this mysterious scent of the sea with Vietdreamtravel as follows.
To make delicious drops of fish sauce, the fish sauce artisan first needs to choose a high-quality source of anchovies. According to fishermen, the busiest anchovy fishing season is from July to December, when the fish are at their highest quality.
After being pulled onto the boat, the anchovies will be filtered, washed with seawater, and immediately salted to keep them fresh. The ratio must also meet the standard of 3 fish to 1 salt, so that Phu Quoc fish sauce is not too salty but has a harmonious, mellow taste. The fish are then brought to barrel houses across the island to prepare for the next journey.
Here, the pickled fish is placed in large wooden barrels that can hold up to 15 tons of anchovies. The giant wooden barrels are up to 2.2 meters high and are considered “treasures” of the island’s artisans, 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 staves fit tightly together and prevent leakage. The wood used to make the barrels is selected from Phu Quoc’s typical woods for high durability. A longtime fish sauce artisan said that wooden barrels are an important factor in bringing the characteristic flavor and color of Phu Quoc fish sauce.
In addition to wooden barrels, the fermentation process by anaerobic compression, which keeps the natural fermentation process ongoing 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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