Kim Bong sweet potato with fish sauce

Sweet potato with fish sauce - a dish in difficult times. Photo: NH

More than 20 years ago, Cam Kim commune was still an oasis. The boat wobbled as it took me across the alluvial land full of sedge fields in the sunny afternoon. The sedge plants grew naturally until the fibers were mature enough to be cut and used to weave mats. I walked along the wet sandy riverbank. From very small depressions in the sand, tiny “mai mai” (also written as mai mai) emerged, looking around in amazement. They resembled field crabs but were as small as chopsticks, so they looked really funny.

The south wind... hits the ground

According to the description of local people, the crab looks like a baby crab, usually living in brackish water at the end of rivers. This species has small legs, a silvery white body the size of a chopstick. Usually, people catch it when it runs ashore during shallow water.

My friend, a real Kim Bong native, seemed... secretive: "The word "squishy" in that folk song means stunted and poor. As for what "sweet potato with fish sauce" is, we'll know in a bit."

The rows of water coconut trees swaying and reflecting on the waves. Perhaps because of its proximity to the river mouth, Kim Bong is famous for being a land where many aquatic species grow. This has influenced the eating habits and culinary culture of the local community. The dish “mam may may” is considered a creation of this poor land surrounded by water.

In Kim Bong village, no one calls it “catching may”, it must be called “going to catch may” to be in the style of our hometown. When the south wind blows along the riverbank, every house prepares its tools to go catch may. Mainly for salting and fish sauce to eat all year round. If there is any surplus, it is brought to the market to sell…

The wide mounds along the river are often where many maggots live. The way the villagers catch maggots here is also very unique! They only bring a hoe to dig a ditch, put a banana leaf trough in there to catch them, make a fence and a big basket to hold the maggots. Every time they go further, they use a rowboat to cross the river. Each trip, the boat carries about 2-3 people.

When the water level in the river begins to dry up, revealing mounds of water-filled sand, the sea urchins emerge from the ground and crawl to the water's edge. Understanding this characteristic of the tiny crustaceans, the sea urchin hunter digs a trench about a hand's breadth deep, takes a banana stem, cuts it into a 1m long piece, bends it, pins the two ends together and places it in the trench. When the sea urchins crawl out of their burrows to drink water, they will fall into the banana stem and will not be able to crawl back up because the banana stem is slippery.

Fish sauce of hard times

The trough made from the old banana tree bark is quite elaborate. Normally, in the morning, the bananas have to be cut, the bark separated, and bundled up to prepare for the afternoon rice milling. The Kim Bong people cut the banana bark at both ends and skillfully folded them to make the trough.

After placing the banana trough in the ditch, continue to use the split banana stalks to make a curved fence to catch the cows towards the trough. The battle plan to catch the cows is complete. All that remains is to leisurely stroke your beard and wait for the cows to fall into the trough...

Sure enough, that night, I was treated to a dish of mam may - a dish that the people of Kim Bong, Cam Kim "value more than gold". My friend whispered: "Mam may is very rare these days, you have to run around the village to beg for it". The four of us had only a small bowl of mam may, so everyone ate sparingly to enjoy the aroma.

Just like making crab paste, the crab is brought home, pounded in a stone mortar and squeezed to get the juice. Then, this mixture is put into a jar, with a little salt and chopped fresh ginger added.

Experienced fish sauce makers all say that using rainwater to filter fish sauce makes the fish sauce taste especially delicious.

If you want to eat it right away, dry it in the sun for a few days or place it on the kitchen rack. After a few days, the fish sauce will be ripe and smell of the golden sunlight and red fire.

If you want to keep it for a long time, bury the fish sauce deep in the ground in the corner of the garden; after two or three months, dig it up to eat gradually... Fish sauce eaten with vermicelli, steamed fish, with rice is "suffocatingly delicious", you can't swallow it in time. Especially during the lean season, when there is no more rice in the barrel, the dish of sweet potato-fish sauce-fish sauce is listed as a... specialty.

It seems like it has been a long time since I returned to Cam Kim. The oasis surrounded by the Thu Bon River has now put on a tourist coat. The countryside is now prosperous and modern. The bridge across the river has made the ferry trips of the past a thing of the past.

There are too many reasons why the once-nostalgic fish sauce dish has disappeared from the culinary map of Kim Bong land of Cam Kim. The day I was welcomed home, my now-old friend nodded regretfully: If I could find a bowl of fish sauce to eat today, I'm afraid it would be harder than... reaching heaven!

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