Fermented shrimp paste made its way on this list because, together with tofu and rice vermicelli, they make a good combo. This combo is called bun dau mam tom (Vietnamese fermented shrimp paste noodle). It’s considered one of the smelliest dishes in Vietnam. But it is my favorite dish! Like fish sauce, shrimp sauce is a condiment made of shrimp and salt, fermented for several weeks. Besides the typical fish sauce mix of the North, shrimp paste is another Vietnamese sauce enjoyed with pork, boiled pork specifically. Original shrimp paste is quite salty. Normally you need to add sugar, kumquat, and boiling oil to the sauce. These additions make it much tastier.

Salt with pepper and lemon leaves – Muoi tieu chanh

This is a very simple mix but it creates a very tasty dipping sauce. A bit of salt, a bit of ground pepper, sliced lemon leaves, and some lemon juice are all you need. Stir these ingredients together and you will have the most powerful sauce. Whether it is boiled chicken, pork or seafood, it can be paired with this sauce to make a great combo.

2. Central Vietnam

Green sauce – Muoi tieu xanh

This green sauce and how it is made is always a mystery to travelers who have visited Nha Trang. Now it’s no longer a secret, you are about to find out what’s in it.

Green sauce recipe:

Ingredients:

• 7 grams of sugar
• 1 lemon
• 2 grams of green chili pepper
• 1 gram of pure salt
• Lemon leaves
• How to make Nha Trang’s green sauce:

 

Clean the chili pepper, remove all the seeds and leave it until it’s dry. When it’s dried out, blend the salt, chili pepper, and lemon leaves together. When the two ingredients are well blended, pour some pure lemon juice into the mixture and blend it for five more seconds. That final step is what makes all the difference. Your green sauce is ready! Green sauce goes very well with seafood, together they make a mind-blowing taste in your mouth.

Fermented fish paste – Mam nem

Mam nem is made by fermenting fish. Unlike fish sauce, this kind of sauce is more condensed, and it looks like shrimp paste. In central Vietnam, it rains and storms for three continuous months. Markets can’t often operate to provide food. This fermented fish paste is considered a reservable food that can be eaten with rice during the rainy season.

Similar to fish sauce, to make this fermented fish paste you just need to prepare salt and fish and mix them together. However, it takes only three months to prepare this sauce instead of one or two years.

If the unique smell of mam nem can’t keep your love, peanut sauce will. It is another great dipping sauce for spring rolls or rice paper rolls. There are more than two ways to make peanut sauce. It’s base can be peanut butter or raw peanuts, with different additional ingredients. My favorite recipe uses raw peanuts.

Ingredient:

• Hoisin sauce
• Minced garlic, scallion
• Sugar, salt, ground pepper
• Coconut juice
• Raw peeled peanut
• Tapioca flour

How to make it: Stir-fry minced garlic and scallions with pounded raw peanut until they blend into each other and you can smell the peanut flavor. Add coconut juice into the mixture and boil it. Mix the tapioca flour with water and sugar, then pour this new fluid into the pan. Stir the mixture, when you see that it’s more condensed, add hoisin sauce and ground pepper. It’s ready. You can add peanut butter in the final step for a stronger peanut taste.

This peanut sauce can go with many different kinds of food: boiled veggies, spring rolls, and sizzling cake (banh xeo). Add some chili satay and then it’s great for grilled pork as well.

3. South Vietnam

Tamarind sauce – Mam me

The North has shrimp paste to compliment boiled pork and intestine. Seafood is married to the green sauce in Central Vietnam. Which dipping sauce represents the South? I say tamarind sauce. Nowhere in Vietnam, can you find better tamarind sauce than in southern cities. This naturally sweet and sour tamarind mixed with the unique saltiness from fish sauce, adds gentle spice from the chili pepper, and you will never have it better. Yum!

Tamarind sauce recipe:

Ingredients:

• Skinless tamarind
• Fish sauce
• Sugar
• Minced garlic and chili pepper

How to make it: Put tamarind in a bowl of warm water and stir it. Filter out the seeds and boil this liquid with fish sauce and sugar. When it is condensed, add minced garlic and chili pepper and turn off the cooker. Wait until it cools down and it’s good to go.

Tamarind sauce can be used as a dipping sauce or as flavor to season food. As a dipping sauce, tamarind sauce can go with any kind of fried fish. Green sour mango with tamarind sauce is an amazing combo! Rice paper is also eaten with tamarind sauce as a snack. As a flavor for cooking, you will fall in love with the duck egg or quail egg cooked in tamarind sauce.

Hoisin sauce (also called brown sauce) – Tuong den

Hoisin sauce originated in China, and was brought to Vietnam a long time ago. With a big Chinese community, hoisin sauce is now an essential sauce in Southern cuisine, especially in Saigon. I couldn’t remember the last time I went to a local restaurant in Saigon without seeing hoisin sauce on the table.

You can easily find hoisin sauce in the local supermarket. Sometimes, try your luck and ask the locals to sell you a bottle. In the south, hoisin sauce is mostly used as dipping sauce for rolled food like spring rolls. It can also be used as an ingredient to make other dipping sauces like peanut sauce. Pho in Saigon is eaten with hoisin sauce in the soup.

Soy sauce

Soy sauce isn’t an original Vietnamese sauce. Like hoisin sauce, soy sauce is commonly used in the south. You can dip everything in soy sauce, from the rice dishes like broken rice or fried rice to stir-fried dishes like veggies or noodles. When you order a takeaway Vietnamese dish in Saigon, it will normally come with a tiny bag of soy sauce.

A good sauce decides a good dish, this statement is always true for Vietnamese food. Your Vietnamese food experience will be easier to understand and spot if you have a certain understanding of its key factor: dipping sauce. I hope it wasn’t too long a read but now you can say you are a Vietnamese dipping sauce expert.

The sauces in this article aren’t all the sauces we have, but it encompasses the most common ones.

Credit to ViBi