Posted 02 February 2006 - 9:36 PM
one of the sales guys bought lunch, so we're having vietnamese...
I got spring rolls, and barbecue pork on cold rice noodles, slathered with Nuoc Nam, or fish sauce...
fish sauce is made through the most disgusting process of all time, they take anchovies, thousands of them, and put them on rattan racks, stack after stack of them, like 10 feet high, then they put a bucket underneath and put it out in the sun.... they take the juice that accumulates at the bottom, then pour it back over the top, and repeat for like 2 months... there was some guy in vietnam, at one of the places they make it, and he got too close to one of these rigs, was overcome with ammonia fumes and died...
it's weird because it's got this really subtle, delicate flavor, that's nothing like fish.