Anchovy paste and rasbora sauce of Cham people

Anchovy paste/sauce is made from different fish species with simple recipe. Firstly, choose the best anchovy fishes, then sprinkle salt on the fishes in the proportion 3: 1 or 4: 1 (it means 3 layers of fishes to 1 layer of salt or 4 layers of fishes to 1 layer of salt). Next, mix the two ingredients together, then put and keep the mixture in a jar from 20 to 30 days to get the cooked fishes. There are two ways to enjoy anchovy paste/sauce:  using the salted fish as a whole, called anchovy paste or using the melted fishes in the kind of fish sauce, called anchovy sauce. As for the Cham people, anchovy paste is their favorite way of eating. There are also tow ways to enjoy anchovy paste: uncooked or cooked ways. The uncooked way is popular among the community, but it is a little abnormal to eat. The most important thing of processing best anchovy paste is experience.

Besides anchovy paste/sauce, Cham people has another fish sauce – that is rasbora sauce, made of freshwater  and baby fishes living in the downstream of the river. In every rainy season, small flocks of rasbora fishes usually gather in the rivers, ponds, ditches filled with water. Mastering this principle, the Cham people in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan provinces catch the fishes to make sauce fish or sell them at the market.

Regarding to ways of processing rasbora sauce, makers always preliminarily treat with the dirty substance inner its belly. The fishes are mixed with salt, roasted rice or crushed popcorn. Then ferment the mixture in a jar and cover with a leaf and then a cap. The proportion of salt and fish and duration of fermentation depend on the Cham people’s appetite in each region. Nevertheless, the duration usually ranges from no more than 10 to 15 days. The recipe to make rasbora sauce is much more difficult and different from the recipe for anchovy sauce/paste because that is the combination between saltiness (the salt) and sweetness (the fish). Therefore, many families get rasbora sauce made by high-skilled makers. It is easier to prepare dishes when the rasbora sauce is available. It is better to mingle the fish sauce with ground tamarind, spring onion, chili, sugar and serve with sliced cucumber, eggplant, star-fruit, and baked rice paper. 

Nowadays, it is difficult to find special anchovy paste/sauce in the Cham village. Most of the anchovy fish/sauce are on the market; only picky families use the home-made products. However, the rasbora sauce is absolutely delicious when it is self-made because this is an irreplaceable specialty of the Cham people. This is also considered as intellectual nourishment for the Cham expats in Ho Chi Minh city or even in overseas to keep it in their minds.

My Thien (Source; Binh thuan Newspaper)