nuoc cham in van

[vandan]

i know it could be made quite easily at home, BUT,,, can it be bought pre-made ifso then where?

[fmed]

Try Thu Hien Deli on Kingsway near Knight. I'm pretty sure they have it.

[vandan]

cool i'm lunching at cuu long anyway, ever seen it @ T&T fmed?

[fmed]

No I haven't. It's made fresh daily at Vietnamese delis - especially the ones that specialize in prepared cha gio and other such savories.

[slugsunderfoot]

what is nuoc cham ?

[vandan]

vietnamese spring roll dipping sauce, although it tastes pretty damned good splashed over rice or noodles as well, anyway i did manage to find it at Kim Chau on Kingsway , as they make it in house for sale

[rosetown]

There is a detailed article in Wikipedia. Wikipedia has an amazing number of articles relating to ingredients and condiments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuoc_cham

For those of you who use Firefox one highlights the word or words, right click and select Look up in Wikipedia. I don't know how other browsers behave.

[slugsunderfoot]

- of course i could have ' hit wiki ' - i knew that. i wanted to hear a def from board members. thank you. : ^ )

[fmed]

So easy to make yourself. I use a kettle to boil the water to dissolve the sugar and then add the rest of the ingredients and an ice cube or two to cool it down quickly. If you have a zester - use it to make the carrot shreds...but I often just forgo.

[grayelf]

But slugs, without the wiki ref you would have missed this excellent definition of...

"Bún, a basis food made from rice and used with vegetable and everything suit. "

Now I need to go out and buy an everything suit for my next Vietnamese meal :-).

Back on topic (sort of), I'm often disappointed by the insipidness of the nuoc cham at Viet restos cf. the sauce at GT II or Pho Royal (is that place even still there?) which makes me wonder if sometimes one of the main ingredients is just water...

[fmed]

I like my nouc cham tart and salty (and funky from the fish sauce). I do find it quite diluted at many restaurants.

[grayelf]

fmed, I think we've talked about this before but do you consider the magical sauce at Song Huong to be nuoc cham? I could bathe in that stuff :-).

[fmed]

No - the Bo 7 Mon sauce is a man nem: http://www.vietnamese-recipes.com/vie...

I too love this stuff....hhmm....it's almost lunchtime.

[grayelf]

Thanks -- I knew you'd sussed out pineapple as the secret ingredient so I should have known it was a different sauce. And if you go to Song Huong for lunch I don't want to hear about it as I am stuck at home with a cold :-(.

[slugsunderfoot]

- hope you get over your cold soon grayelf !

- i remember passing thru edmonton once- by greyhound, headed east or west- i cannot remember. this was a few years after the so- called ' boat people ' ( from vietnam ) arrived in canada. i happened to be wandering about, a bit drunk ( between hounds ) and came across what would have been then one of the first ( if not THE first ) vietnamese- canadian pho restaurants in the city. i entered and requested a bowl of ' beef soup '. i had not a clue how i was supposed to manage the bean sprouts and basil- ate it like a salad, squeezing the lime segment onto it ! the young woman in the place had to show me how to ' properly ' enjoy the soup ! i left a dollar bill tip ( yes- dollar bill ) - hours later, back on a bus headed somewhere- i figured out that had left a HUNDRED DOLLAR BILL !!!
- in retrospect: it was woth it.

[grayelf]

Thanks -- feeling better today. I loved your story and was thinking we need a thread in Not About Food for crazy tipping tales -- it would make a nice change from the usual tipping threads :-).

To the OP: the nuoc cham from Ba Le is very tasty and I bet they'd sell you some if you asked (I don't remember seeing it for sale on its own).

[vandan]

yes indeed, they sell it for $2 in a smallish plastic tub