{"id":1744,"date":"2005-06-02T05:42:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-02T05:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elitemporaryblog.wordpress.com\/2005\/06\/02\/on-fame-funk-and-fish-sauce"},"modified":"2015-09-24T03:54:23","modified_gmt":"2015-09-24T03:54:23","slug":"on-fame-funk-and-fish-sauce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/06\/on-fame-funk-and-fish-sauce\/","title":{"rendered":"On fame, funk, and fish sauce"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems as though every food\u2014almonds to zabaglione, frumpy to fancy\u2014has its fifteen minutes of fame<\/strong>. Yesterday\u2019s coffee is today\u2019s tea; sushi cedes the spotlight to crudo; and pricey imported olive oil gives way to pricey domestic butter. Of this year\u2019s \u201cit\u201d edibles, bacon has perhaps been the busiest on the scene, nabbing the title \u201cbest food in the world\u201d in the March issue of Saveur<\/em><\/a>, inspiring a fatty<\/a> flurry<\/a> of blogging, and finding its way into this and that, near and far. It\u2019s on everyone\u2019s lips; I long ago stopped counting the number of times I\u2019d heard the exclamation, \u201cEverything tastes better with bacon!\u201d Now, granted, salt and smoke are sublime, but truth be told\u2014no matter how shocking\u2014I\u2019m just not so interested. As far as I\u2019m concerned, bacon has nothing on fish sauce<\/a>, the newest \u201cgo-to\u201d ingredient<\/a>. I can\u2019t avow that everything<\/em> tastes better with the stuff, but I\u2019d venture to say that almost<\/em> everything does, especially when lime juice, garlic, chilies, and sugar are involved<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It may not sound or smell so appetizing<\/a>, but fish sauce, also known in Thailand as nam pla<\/em> and in Vietnam as nuoc mam<\/em>, is the cornerstone of the intensely delicious cuisines of Southeast Asia. Fish sauce is high in umami, one of the <\/strong>five basic tastes<\/strong><\/a> recognized by the human tongue<\/strong>, along with saltiness, sourness, sweetness, and bitterness. Umami translates somewhat ambiguously to \u201csavoriness,\u201d though I\u2019d describe it instead as a round, full flavor\u2014the sort of sensation we experience when tasting Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, soy sauce, or mushrooms. Fish sauce adds depth, complexity, and an appealing funkiness<\/strong> to dishes, and when teamed and tempered with the right partners, it\u2019s alarmingly difficult to stop eating. Take, for example, this simple rice noodle salad.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tough to think of a better dinner for an almost-summer night: cool slippery noodles, green slivers of scallion and Napa cabbage, sweet carrot, salty peanuts, chopped cilantro, and chunks of roasted chicken, doused in a dance-on-the-tongue dressing<\/strong> that balances the pungency of fish sauce with the acidity of lime, the heat of chilies, and the sweetness of sugar. You may find yourself oddly tempted to dump the dressing over everything in sight, from plain greens to sliced cucumber, grilled fish, or a bowl of sticky rice; you may want a dab behind the ears, or a long soak in a bathtub full of it. But with a cold beer in one hand and a pair of chopsticks in the other, you\u2019ll be too busy. Like everything else, fish sauce only gets fifteen minutes of fame, so there\u2019s no time to waste.<\/p>\n

Almost-Summer Rice Noodle Salad<\/strong>
Adapted from Lynne Rossetto Kasper\u2019s Splendid Table Weeknight Kitchen<\/em> e-mail newsletter<\/p>\n

This salad is very versatile, and you can’t go wrong with any variety of ingredients. Try using shrimp or roasted tofu in place of the chicken and roasted salted almonds instead of peanuts, or substitute basil for the cilantro. If you like, add slivered fresh spinach leaves, diced jicama, blanched and slivered snow peas, or a bit of julienned mint. The recipe makes quite a bit of dressing, so you\u2019ll have some left over; it will keep in the refrigerator for several days and can be used to marinate poultry, beef, pork, or seafood before grilling.<\/p>\n

1 pound thin rice noodles (roughly the thickness of linguine)
3 large cloves garlic, peeled
\u00bd cup Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce
2\/3 cup water
\u00bd cup fresh lime juice
\u00bd cup rice vinegar
\u00bc to \u00bd cup brown sugar, to taste
1 to 2 hot chilies (red bird, jalape\u00f1o, or serrano), seeded and minced, or to taste
6 to 8 leaves Napa cabbage, thinly sliced
8 scallions, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, peeled and shredded or julienned
\u00bd cup tightly packed cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
2 grilled or roasted chicken breasts, shredded
1 cup salted peanuts, coarsely chopped<\/p>\n

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the rice noodles and cook for 5 minutes, or until tender but not mushy. Drain the noodles into a colander, rinse with cold water, and then place them in a large bowl.<\/p>\n

Place the garlic cloves in the bowl of a food processor, and pulse to mince. Add the fish sauce, water, lime juice, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, and chilies, and pur\u00e9e them together. [The mixture will get quite frothy.] Taste, and if necessary, add more chile and adjust the sweet\/tart balance. Pour the dressing into a serving bowl, and set it on the dining table.<\/p>\n

Toss the vegetables and cilantro with the noodles, and mound the mixture on a platter. Scatter the chicken and peanuts over the top, and serve. Traditionally, this salad is eaten in individual bowls, so invite your dining partners to scoop their own portion from the platter and dress it as they see fit.<\/p>\n

Serves 4-6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems as though every food\u2014almonds to zabaglione, frumpy to fancy\u2014has its fifteen minutes of fame. Yesterday\u2019s coffee is today\u2019s tea; sushi cedes the spotlight to crudo; and pricey imported olive oil gives way to pricey domestic butter. Of this year\u2019s \u201cit\u201d edibles, bacon has perhaps been the busiest on the scene, nabbing the title \u201cbest food in the world\u201d in the March issue of Saveur, inspiring a fatty flurry of blogging, and finding its way into this and that, near and far. It\u2019s on everyone\u2019s lips; I long ago stopped counting the number of times I\u2019d heard the exclamation, \u201cEverything tastes better with bacon!\u201d Now, granted, salt and smoke are sublime, but truth be told\u2014no matter how shocking\u2014I\u2019m just…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOn fame, funk, and fish sauce | Orangette<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/06\/on-fame-funk-and-fish-sauce\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On fame, funk, and fish sauce | Orangette\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It seems as though every food\u2014almonds to zabaglione, frumpy to fancy\u2014has its fifteen minutes of fame. Yesterday\u2019s coffee is today\u2019s tea; sushi cedes the spotlight to crudo; and pricey imported olive oil gives way to pricey domestic butter. Of this year\u2019s \u201cit\u201d edibles, bacon has perhaps been the busiest on the scene, nabbing the title \u201cbest food in the world\u201d in the March issue of Saveur, inspiring a fatty flurry of blogging, and finding its way into this and that, near and far. It\u2019s on everyone\u2019s lips; I long ago stopped counting the number of times I\u2019d heard the exclamation, \u201cEverything tastes better with bacon!\u201d Now, granted, salt and smoke are sublime, but truth be told\u2014no matter how shocking\u2014I\u2019m just…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/06\/on-fame-funk-and-fish-sauce\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Orangette\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/molly.wizenberg\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-06-02T05:42:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-09-24T03:54:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/06\/Noodle_salad_right.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mollyorangette\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mollyorangette\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Molly\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/\",\"name\":\"Orangette\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/06\/on-fame-funk-and-fish-sauce\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/06\/Noodle_salad_right.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/06\/Noodle_salad_right.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/06\/on-fame-funk-and-fish-sauce\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/06\/on-fame-funk-and-fish-sauce\/\",\"name\":\"On fame, funk, and fish sauce | Orangette\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/06\/on-fame-funk-and-fish-sauce\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2005-06-02T05:42:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-09-24T03:54:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/#\/schema\/person\/72d7c362f82fa0578c635d88a69d07fe\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/06\/on-fame-funk-and-fish-sauce\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/06\/on-fame-funk-and-fish-sauce\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/06\/on-fame-funk-and-fish-sauce\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"On fame, funk, and fish sauce\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/#\/schema\/person\/72d7c362f82fa0578c635d88a69d07fe\",\"name\":\"Molly\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/orangette.net\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/orangette.net\/author\/molly\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"On fame, funk, and fish sauce | Orangette","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/06\/on-fame-funk-and-fish-sauce\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"On fame, funk, and fish sauce | Orangette","og_description":"It seems as though every food\u2014almonds to zabaglione, frumpy to fancy\u2014has its fifteen minutes of fame. 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