A specialty of Quynh land

(Baonghean.vn) Coming to Phu Loi fish sauce village (Quynh Di - Quynh Luu) in the last days of the year, as soon as you reach the village entrance, the fish sauce aroma is already wafting. For many years now, when talking about fish sauce, people often do not think of the name Phu Loi, but just "Quynh Di fish sauce" has become an unmistakable brand...

The fish sauce making profession in Quynh Di has existed for a long time. Now, when talking about “Cuong Ngan” - the only production facility in the village that has registered its trademark, many people know that it is the fourth generation descendant of the “ancestor” of the fish sauce making profession. More than 200 years ago, Mr. Hoang Duc Phon, originally from Quynh Luong, migrated with the villagers to Quynh Di to establish a village. With the abundant products of the sea, he experimented to make the first liters of fish sauce. When he had enough “sources”, Mr. Phon and other village boys used bamboo boats along the Le Dynasty canal to bring fish sauce to the northern provinces for consumption, while also learning more experience from other lands. The fish sauce profession in Quynh Di was born from that time and also became famous from that day.

Mr. Cuong's family prepares goods for Tet.

Quynh Di fish sauce has its own unique, rich, and unmistakable flavor. But the most valuable thing is that the people who make the fish sauce here are always conscious of preserving their profession. Only when you come back to the village and witness the fish sauce making process of the people can you see that this "career" is also very elaborate. With 34 km of coastline, Quynh Luu has 12 communes with seafood exploitation, with abundant and rich sources of raw materials, but to make fish sauce, Quynh Di people almost only choose black anchovies - a type of fish with a rich, sweet flavor. The steps are meticulous right from the stage of choosing the ingredients. The fish must be fresh and only one type of fish of the same size, without any mixing, if there is a larger fish, it must be cut to the same size, doing so will make the fish sauce cook evenly.

According to the "veterans" in the profession, Quynh Di fish sauce is much more delicious than other regions, because the sea water is not as salty, the fish is fatter and sweeter, so the fish sauce has a rich and sweet taste. After choosing the right ingredients, it is time to prepare the salt and make the bait. The salt is only used from the sand, because if using salt from the water, it will be salty and harsh, making the fish sauce not delicious. When making the bait, the rice grains must be roasted until burnt, if only roasted until golden brown, the fish sauce will be sour.

From the traditional way of making of their ancestors, Quynh Di people gradually created their own "secrets". In addition to rice bran, roasted sesame, cane sugar, if it is in season, many households also mix in fresh pineapple cut into pieces to enhance the flavor of the product. All are ground, mixed with fish and then compressed. In Quynh Di, there are 2 ways to make fish sauce, but the main way is to make it by pressing. The containers were previously made of yellow heartwood, but in recent years, wood is scarce, so people switched to earthenware jars. The ingredients are packed tightly in the jars and then sealed, every few months, the craftsmen take the fish sauce out and then pour it back into the jars, the purpose is to make the fish sauce ripen evenly. After a season of mild sunshine, a season of dry sunshine, they start to draw the pots, which means using bamboo tubes to punch holes in the jars and let them flow out. Because of such sophistication, Quynh Di fish sauce is always favored by gourmets. The people here are still proud that Quynh Di fish sauce has been flown to faraway Russia. There was a Nghe An person far away from home, missing the taste of his homeland so much that he asked his family to buy it, put it in a can of Coca-Cola, put it in a suitcase and take it to a faraway place, to taste a bit of the rich flavor to ease his homesickness.

The season for making fish sauce is all year round, but the busiest is in October - February of the following lunar year and around May and June. During those days, boats return to the wharf, some of which go fishing far away, bringing back dozens of tons of fish. The scene at the fishing wharf is always bustling. Large-scale fishing households, who want to have fresh ingredients, must contract with the boat owners, process and use salt to marinate the fish immediately after catching them, absolutely no ice, because according to skilled "workers", this method will not kill the fish's probiotics, helping the fish retain water, protein and sweetness.

Coming to Quynh Di, we also heard about making fish sauce from sea eels, used to cure diseases. Sea eels have delicious meat like chicken meat, bitter gall, very rare. People in the coastal village have to "watch" for the right time when the fish is as big as two fingers to make fish sauce, because then the fish has just the right amount of protein and gall. Fish sauce made from this type of fish has a salty taste due to the poison from the venom, and also according to the "elderly", this poison after going through a whole process of being soaked and fermented into fish sauce, combined with some other ingredients such as chicken eggs, honey, buried deep underground for at least 6 months, absorbing enough yin and yang energy of heaven and earth, will become a substance with medicinal effects. People in coastal areas, every house has at least a few bottles of this type of fish sauce, and on trips out to sea, few people do not have it, so when the weather changes, they have a cough, flu or stomachache, they just need to drink a few sips to feel better immediately.

Faced with the massive emergence of many fish sauce brands produced using modern technological lines, Phu Loi fish sauce village is currently facing many difficulties. Mr. Tran Van Dang, Vice President of the Craft Village Association, said: Currently, the whole commune has more than 450 households making fish sauce, but after 6 years since being recognized as a craft village, only Mr. Hoang Duc Cuong - owner of Cuong Ngan Fish Sauce Production Facility has registered the private brand "Cuong Ngan Fish Sauce", 7 households have been granted food safety and hygiene certificates.

However, even these large production facilities are struggling to find a direction for their products. Making fish sauce is a traditional profession here, many old people before passing away only had one wish: to preserve and promote the traditional profession of their ancestors, so the next generations always have the awareness to preserve and stick with the profession. Previously, fish sauce was sold as soon as it was produced, the craft village had more than 10 households, using hundreds of tons of fish raw materials each year. But in recent years, facing fish sauce brands produced using modern technology, with advantages such as a professional and widespread distribution and sales network, products packaged in small bottles, eye-catching colors, so fish sauce products produced by hand have had difficulty capturing the market.

Moreover, most of the households are working on a family scale, so collecting a large volume to meet large orders is also difficult. The advantage but also the limitation of Quynh Di fish sauce is that it is produced entirely by hand, using materials available in nature, so when it is first extracted, the product is shimmering and clear yellow, but after a while, the fish sauce gradually turns dark black due to oxidation, although the quality is not significantly affected. Although knowing that customers do not like it, Quynh Di people are still determined not to "innovate", loyal to the precious way of making and self-respect, awareness of preserving the profession.

Since the first time participating in the exhibition booth, introducing female enterprises of Nghe An province, organized by the Provincial Women's Union in 2006 until now, Mr. Cuong - Ms. Ngan have participated in many fairs and exhibitions. On the wall of the small house hang many certificates of Cuong Ngan fish sauce products participating in domestic and international fairs such as: Vietnam ASEAN +3 Technology and Equipment Fair, International Agricultural Exhibition Fair in Vietnam AgroViet 2009... or most recently participating in the North Central Culinary Culture Festival... In those exhibitions and product introductions, some were supported by the state in terms of costs, some the family had to manage on their own, but they were always ready to participate when there was an opportunity, with only one burning desire - Quynh Di fish sauce is known by many people as a product that is not only delicious but also very clean.

The wish of the villagers is that the State will soon have a solution to help the village's products have a brand, thereby creating a reputation worthy of its quality, helping Quynh Di fish sauce reach all regions in the province.

“Working all year, selling on Tet”, these days, the atmosphere in Phu Loi craft village is very excited and bustling. Along with the ships returning with fish filled in the hold are earthenware jars filled with fish sauce that has been marinated until golden brown, so that when Tet comes, Spring comes, in the kitchen of every Vietnamese family, the rich flavor of the homeland is indispensable.

Phu Huong