Word: fishelis
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MERCURY You may not be into heavy-metal music, but if you are a fish eater, heavy metals are inside you. The omega-3 fatty acids in big, deep-ocean fish are good for the heart, but the flesh of fish at the top of the pelagic food chain also tends to be laced with pollutants. Chief among them: mercury, which can increase the risk of heart disease. Should you fish or cut bait? So far it's a draw, with two major studies coming to opposite conclusions. Until more studies are completed, doctors believe that the benefits of fish...
Balancing atop a ladder, 72-year-old Nguyen Van Bang closes his eyes to take a deep appreciative breath. Then he plunges his hand into a vat of rotting anchovies and salt. "You see, this one is only about a week old-the fish still have their eyes and tails," he says, turning over a soupy mixture between his fingers. "But they'll all decompose soon enough, don't worry." Descending, he springs to another wooden vat and turns a valve, filling a snifter with a warm amber liquid. This is prized nuoc mam, fermented for more than a year...
...Distilled fish remains might not strike everyone as a culinary delight, but don't tell that to Bang or anyone else on Phu Quoc Island. The spry septuagenarian is Phu Quoc's undisputed master taster of nuoc mam, the fermented fish sauce that is the heart of Vietnamese cuisine. This tiny island off the southern coast is famed for producing the best nuoc mam in the world. Nearly half of Phu Quoc's economy is dependent on nuoc mam, with 90 family-owned factories producing 10 million liters a year and passing their secrets down from generation to generation...
...Fermenting fish into a sauce dates back thousands of years: a similar sauce, known as garum or liquamen, was the most common seasoning in the Roman Empire. Southeast Asians still have the taste. Thais produce nam pla, Filipinos patis. In Vietnam, though, nuoc mam is more than just an important ingredient. "I can't cook without it," says Tran Cong, 33, chef of Le Tonkin restaurant in Hanoi. "Vietnamese food would turn into nothing without nuoc...
...face of it, nuoc mam is rudimentary to make. Alternate layers of fish with salt, and leave them to ferment for at least four months. Drain the vat from the bottom, pour the sauce back into the vat and wait another few months. Then drain again. This first pressing, as prized as extra-virgin olive oil, is called nhi and is usually reserved for dipping bowls at the table. On Phu Quoc, they douse everything from vegetables to french fries in salty nuoc mam nhi. Second and third pressings are used for cooking...