Comments on: Don’t Fear the Fish Sauce

By: Corina

Corina — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 07:18:56 +0000

I love Thai food and use fish sauce often at home but have never thought to use it in any other types of cuisine. I’m now looking forward to adding it as a secret ingredient next time I made an Italian tomato sauce!

By: e^2

e^2 — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 00:46:40 +0000

Ah, that’s good to know. Thank you so much. (Wow, my post had a lot of typos in it. I’m glad you answered even though I failed on the first impression.)

I love umami ingredients and never use them sparingly! I’ve always been worried about trying dishes that called for things like oyster sauce or shrimp paste or what have you because I know well that they are in there for a good reason.

But I figured, just like losing out on eating shrimp, I would just lose out on a flavor component of the dish. That’s why I was glad when I read about the vegetarian version of the sauce.

I have to be very careful about these things; I’m most experienced with Japanese cooking, and if you didn’t have to pay attention like I do, you might be surprised what all is in some of their “fish” cakes.

I don’t know if this is something that should be addressed separately and perhaps you’d email me or even be extra wonderful and post, but do you have any tips on proper substitions for other shellfish or shellfish-based ingredients? I would be ever so grateful!

By: Barbara

Barbara — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 01:34:21 +0000

Yes, the vegetarian version will be quite fine for you. There are versions based on mushroom extract that are quite flavorful in a similar way to the regular oyster sauce.

I am glad you stopped by to ask–and I hope you come by again. And you can comment on any post and I will see it–but if you have a question about something and it is off topic–just go to the most recent post and ask anyway. Or, email me. I have folks email me with questions all the time.

I am glad that I could help

But anyway, the reason a mushroom-based “oyster” sauce would work just as well for you is because both mushrooms and shellfish are filled with glutamates, which give the flavor, “umami” which is a savory, sort of meaty flavor. It boosts the other flavors in a dish, and since both oysters and mushrooms are filled with glutamates, they both fulfill a similar function in a sauce based upon their extractives.

By: e^2

e^2 — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 23:15:19 +0000

Can I throw on a comment (very very late) here? This blog seems to be sent up so that Barbara should I hope read and notice this. I have read up on fish and oyster sauce pretty throughly, because a) I love Asian food and b) I don’t always do well eating it because I’m terribly allergic to shellfish. So I have to be quite careful about ingredients. I’ve never seen this addressed – in recipes that call for oyster sauce, would the vegetarian version serve best as a substition for me? How much would the flavor miss if I skipped out on it entirely?

By: BRo0Ke.

BRo0Ke. — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

There are many kinds of vegetarians (Mangsavirat) in Thailand, some less strict than the other, but most don’t use Fish sauce in their cooking. They use soy sauce or vegetarian oyster sauce (it’s made from mushroom though – the oyster is only in the name!) for seasoning instead. However, in recent years vegetarianism became sort of a ‘fad’, and like any other fad, people just do whatever they want with it. Hence, the birth of all these weird concoctions of vegetarianism: “sometime-vegetarian”, “weekends-vegetarian”, “beef-vegetarian”, “pork-vegetarian” etc… Personally, I’d rather not use the term at all if you still want to eat meat products :-/, but that’s just me.