Nam O fish sauce craft village

Nam O fish sauce making craft in Da Nang is one of the few traditional fish sauce craft villages that still exist across the country and has just been included in the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has just announced the profession of making Nam O fish sauce in Da Nang, on the list of national intangible cultural heritage.

In order to be included in the list of intangible cultural heritage, the following criteria must be met:

Being representative, showing the identity of the community and locality
Reflecting cultural diversity, human creativity, inherited through generations
Resilient and long-lasting; community consensus, voluntary nomination and commitment to protect.

Nam O fish sauce village was formed over 400 years ago. This is one of the few traditional fish sauce craft villages that still exist in the country.

Nam O fish sauce is famous near and far because of the salty taste of the central sea with the secret of making fish sauce of 3 fish and 1 salt separately.

Currently, more than 100 households are attached to the profession of making Nam O fish sauce. Each year, this craft village provides domestic and foreign markets with more than 50,000 liters of fish sauce.

The essence of water holds the male umbrella

One of the characteristics of Nam O fish sauce is the completely handmade way of making fish sauce. And the fish sauce made is brewed for a year to refine the best kind of fish sauce.

With Nam O fish sauce, the main ingredient for processing fish sauce is from anchovies. Fished by fishermen at the beginning of the third lunar month.

At this time, anchovies integrate the most protein, the fisherman will choose medium sized ones. Fish is usually not washed with fresh water to avoid the fish quickly rotten, losing its taste.

Fish are salted in jackfruit wood jars, with a layer of grit at the bottom of the jars. Each salt shaker contains from 200-300 kg of fish. After a year, the finished product is about 100-150 liters of fish sauce.