We use Red boat for the way it's made. The fishes are salted right away on the boat out in the sea, hence the freshness retention. And the owner is American Vietnamese and scientifically inclined. Bravo to your well executed video on this subject.
Since the Red Boat sauce has twice the amount of protein compared to other brands, you can just use half the amount of the sauce to get the same umami-enhancing effect. That would also help in reducing the amount of salt in your food, which is healthier. To me, that is a win-win.
Who uses fish sauce to make stuff healthier? If you want the same amount of seasoning and flavor, you'd have to compensate with more salt anyway. Unless you have health issues, the idea of purposefully making food taste blander is hilarious. I'd rather eat less food that tastes well-seasoned than eat more food that's half of what it's supposed to be.
@@DiegoSanstwen What's hilarious is you completely misunderstand what I said. Salt is just one, not the only flavor enhancer. And there are lots of people who want to have flavorful foods without having to eat too much salt. If you want to eat lots of salt, go for it, who forbids you?
You really deserve a fish sauce sommelier medal for this one. I think I’ll be looking for an abalone at the Samrong market tomorrow. Yes, I’m in Bangkok right now and loving it. I also love the description, funky fish sauce!
Here, it's Red Boat, all the way. I find, I get the best results if I 'build' the ingredients around it. Sometimes more, rarely less. Took delivery of your two Cook Books the other day. My family and I are enjoying the meals very much.
I have tried that Red Boat Maple Bourbon previously, it was tasty but not something I'd use routinely. The regular Red Boat is my go-to fish sauce. Big umami & no sugar or other additives.
My daughter got me a bottle of Haku Mizunara whiskey barrel aged shoyu for Christmas last year. Very tasty . And very different from regular soy sauce.
Because of you, I purchased the Red Boat a few years back. I love it and I can't go back. I use it only for dipping/raw sauces now. I also tried the 3 Crabs Viet Huong (again because of you) and I use that for cooking. Both are great!
I had a bottle of (regular, not premium) squid I was using for the past few months, when I needed to replace it I went with Red Boat and it's great as I tend to use fish sauce which is through dishes like curries or soups since the umami has a bit more staying power. I do think the red boat is a little too strong to use 'straight up', but that isn't my usual use case - I may have to pick up a bottle of abelone for that. Thanks for the amazing content as always!
As a Thai, I would say Abalone makes the best fish sauce at the moment. Though, if you look in the detail you will find that these are actually made by the same company who makes คนแบกกุ้ง brand (Rayong Fish Sauce Co.). The taste is very elegant and SUPER umami. Like P'Pai said, the umami lingers very long in your mouth and honestly it does not taste fishy at all. All in all, since the flavor is very delicate and nice I would suggest you reserve this fish sauce for dips and salads.
Thankyou for your continual amazing passion that is so addictive to all of us following your channels. .. couldn’t go back to life without you !! Happy new year 🥳
Your hand arching at 19:58 is priceless. Your upbeat personality is infectious, and your enthusiasm for sharing your knowledge inspiring. The kitchen in this video compared to the original fish sauce one is dreamy. Keep up the good work! -Geoff in Vancouver
Thank you so much for making these videos, you are my favorite love your tips love your joie de vivre, I've tried many of your recipies and they are so good , Thai food is my favorite as I travel in Thailand every winter I am in Chiang Mai right now. I'm from Montreal so it's too cold for me in the winter.
Thank you so much, I've been wanting to get something fancier for my kitchen and appreciate your input. Looking forward to exploring the rest of your channel, I've been getting back into the kitchen and really enjoying some video content.
Dude, you really took one for the team making this video! I'll definitely check out the Red Boat and I even see my local Costco carrying it. I've been using the Three Crabs brand almost exclusively since your last video, which prompted me to do my own taste test. Thanks!!!
Wonderful, wonderful video... Clear, analytical, rational and logical in the approach to something that can be so subjective (as taste can be). Thanks so much for this Pai! 😍
As a Thai, I never really cared for fish sauce until I discovered Abalone. 😂 It’s a little pricier than the rest (not that much tbh) but it just tastes so much better. ❤
Whenever there's a comparison between some "premium" seasoning and its regular version, it's always "use the pemium as a condiment and cook with the regular". It doesn't surprise me at all that it's the same conclusion this time. I more often than not cook with fish sauce, so I go for cheap ones. My go-to brand is Oyster since it only has three ingredients in it, namely anchovies, salt and sugar, and no other chemicals you can't even pronounce. IIt's also cost-effective as a 700 mL bottle only costs about HK$20, or no more than US$3.
my family always used the 3 crabs brand and I still use it today but someone did give me some of the red boat as a gift and I think I agree with the conclusion in your video. the premium tastes better in uncooked sauces (slightly) but when cooking I always use the 3 crabs brand or squid brand
This is a very long video, for your doing. But I am very glad you made it. I have been “struggling“ with fish sauce for years now. And have obviously been overspending on Red Boat since your previous fish sauce video. Now I’m more savvy. Thanks.
I’m only at the tasting bit, but I feel like Abalone would maybe be my go-to for anything where I really wanted the fish sauce to shine through, like a raw application like a salad. Something where I could appreciate the taste a lot, especially given what you said about the sugar. Squid is also my favourite brand of fish sauce, though, so I’m a little sad that their premium probably wouldn’t be my go-to. But you’re really selling me on the Abalone. I haven’t even tasted it, but I already feel like I know how it tastes, and it’s good. The Maple Bourbon… scares me… and I just saw your reaction to it, so… it seems warranted. Lol Also… I might be wrong, but… did you specially select your tasting spoons based on the fish sauce that would go with it? Like the sort of golden spoon for the most premium, or maybe your favourite of the spoons for the squid brand since it’s you’re favourite? Maybe I’m wrong, but that feels so you. And it’s definitely something I would do. Lol I love my tiny implements, too.😊
I imagine the stronger one is good for marinating meat especially the one with bourbon. Thanks for the video! I always don't know what to cook until I check out your channel. Thanks for all the ideas, recipes and inspirations. All your explanations in all videos are very very helpful. If you have a video editor please make all your long video to short videos as well. It is good for visual learner like me after I have gone to your detail videos, sometimes I'm in a hurry and need quick review of your recipe. The short videos will be very handy. This is just my opinion.
Very interesting. I bought a regular Red Boat bottle a while ago, at the price of good champagne, so I use it carefully. A vietnamese lady in Paris introduced me to the Phu Quoc nuoc mam and I appreciate it a lot, so it is my regular one from now on. Asian stores in Paris provide it even in big bottles.
Definitely found this interesting,as you describe your tastings it totally reminds me of going wine tasting here in Nor Cal.I switched from 3 Crab Brand to R/B after your first video and keep an eye out for these.Thanks for this and keep up the good work.
Red boat has been my go to for a while now. It's strong, but I've grown to really love that strong fish sauce flavor. Somehow it feels like it really amps up the food more than the other fish sauce I used before. I probably need to try some of these Thai brands, though.
As someone who often feels overwhelmed by all the choices in the sauce aisle at the Asian market, I really appreciate these videos. Thank you so much for making them!
This was really interesting! It actually makes me wonder if you could boost the savoriness of the regular, non first press fish sauce in cooked applications by adding a bit of a fish based bouillon. I always have anchovy bouillon as well as hondashi on hand. I may try adding a pinch of the anchovy bouillon to my fish sauce the next time I make a dish that's very fish sauce forward to see how it comes out.
I sometimes add a pinch of chicken stock powder to chicken dishes for that extra boost of flavor (e.g. chicken porridge) so doing the same with fish would work out well IMO
Great video, been following your channel since shortly after it's inception. You helped me solve my curry problems back then after years of failure. Indebted! I've done this same type of test in my home with groups of people. So this video has great meaning to me. I also live less than 10 miles away from where Red Boat quietly has their "Family Reserve" and other products aged and packaged by BLIS gourmet. Found that out about 2 years ago, already having been a fish sauce drinker for over 20 years😂. And I agree, all levels of fish sauce have their place in different dishes. South east Asian food is a powerful desire in my life. Travelled extensively pursuing it. Thank you for your great work and continued inspiration.
We have found that the premium squid made a substantial difference to curries (your red and green recipes). It just makes a nicer finished product that is better balanced in overall flavour. Here in OZ it's a difference of maybe $1 from regular squid so it's a no brainer for us. We are new to cooking Thai but really are starting to do well, and using these quality ingredients makes a huge difference. I'll look out for Abalone, thanks for the video these ingredient comparison videos are gold.
I found this very interesting. When I shop at the grocery store, I can chose 'fish sauce" or "no fish sauce" but at the Asian market, I'm confronted with a bewildering array of choices - although I don't believe "aged in bourbon barrels" is one of them. I think I will do better thanks to your guidance. Thank you for sharing.
I’m so surprised Squid is your fish sauce of choice. We made it about halfway through the bottle and finally decided we had to throw it out. Red boat is the only brand in our home😂
Yup. I think using Red Boat in the same amount as weaker fish sauces is a mistake, too. It's a lot of flavor in an easy to store and long lasting bottle.
My mom who’s been a chef for over 30+ years prefers to use Squid because she said it’s more saltier and flavorful for cooking, but I prefer cooking with three crabs. Just personal preference.
It's like for the people who don't use "seasoned" rice vinegar. Let the cook blend the flavorings and control the sugar. Great episode. I use Red Boat, but I don't have $30 bucks for the super premium. Thank you for an information forward taste test. Those WERE huge eggs!
This taste test was very interesting, I use fish sauce frequently and always have a hard time selecting a good one at the store, I learned more with your video, thank you!!
Here at home, we use Abalone strictly for dipping sauce or dressings since it really is more an umami than seasoning, and it’s a lot less salty than the regular fish sauce. So we don’t use that for cooking. It’s too expensive to use on cooking.
With some Vietnamese friends, I was able to compare them all side by side, color, smell and taste, and I was amazed by the results. Three Crabs is very popular but I found it to be one of my least favorites with a perfume taste. Red boat 40N was may absolute favorite and now I won't use anything else.
Red boat is a brand of expensive fish sauce in Vietnam. It has a protein content of 40-60% and is produced mainly on Phu Quoc island in Vietnam and in the video it is only 50%.
Great video. Me and my wife love your Prik nam pla recipe, so if I see Abalone, I'll get it just for that. I've been using the normal green capped Squid brand since I was a kid, it's just a staple in my house like Ketchup, mayo or mustard.
love regular Red Boat and use it all the time, but it being so strong I do reduce what the recipe suggests a bit, it can easily overpower a dish IMO. That being said, I just ordered a bottle of Abalone which will show up tomorrow, having something a bit less strong is going to be handy. I'm not going to spend $30 on a burbon maple fish sauce though, neither of those flavors have anything to do with Thai (or Asian in general) cooking. Seems like it's targeted for the US so called "fancy food" market, costing a lot more w/o really delivering value for $. Is there a single Thai recipe that calls for maple syrup or burbon? I can't quite imagine. Interesting video! Just the color difference was quite astounding.
Watch this to see how Red Boat's owner defines their "Family Reserved" Red Boat. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KnxvsPh4NJQ.html Its cost is more related to the scarcity of extremely high protein content that you can only get out of some batches. And due to its strong smell, it is only for fish sauce lovers (mostly Vietnamese only). IF you don't use/are being raised with fish sauce, most people cant even distinguish manufactured fish sauce and the OG fish sauce.
The color of Red Boat fish sauce is very similar to the fish sauce my family makes; it’s the most accurate version of traditional Vietnamese fish sauce. As a Vietnamese who grew up with fish sauce, if I had to choose, I would go with Red Boat. It’s easy to mix a bowl of fish sauce with garlic, sugar, lime, bird’s eye chili, and a bit of water to thin it out. It tastes incredibly delicious with all steamed and boiled dishes.
I bought a bottle of the Red Boat when it was on sale and found that my family actually noticed a difference. I had been using Abalone. In Larp I think the stronger Red boat was really special.
Squid has been my go to fish sauce for a couple of decades, but now I have a Red Boat 50 in the fridge, along with a Nap Pla ra from Isaan with river fish rather than anchovies. I use both sauces in Prik Nam Pla, and in various cooked dishes both Asian and from other cultures, including Italian American, Polish, etc. It's all good, and whatever works, works. I should mention that I use a bourbon and oak body wash which is nice, but not a big deal. I will look up Abalone brand and possibly try that also one of these days.
Thank you so much Pailin for doing all testing the fish sauce brands.I never know how the fish sauce is ranking from regular to premium.I thought they all the same.😊❤❤❤
I'd be curious about the 50 N regular vs. the 50 N maple bourbon in a cooked application. But really, what this video has taught me is that I should have a selection of fish sauces for different things. I've been a Red Boat (regular) fan for several years, and it goes into most of my cooking. But I'm definitely adding a bottle of Abalone to my shopping list, if for nothing more than making prik nam pla, which the Red Boat has always been a bit too challenging for the girlfriend in that application. Great video, as always!
Another excellent, entertaining and informative video! Thank you for tasting all of those sauces so I don't have to. I was cringing the entire time. I don't like seafood but use fish sauce when cooking Thai and Chinese food for the umami background flavor. Could not imagine just swallowing a teaspoon of it straight.
I was very happy to see Red Boat in this line up as I've been buying them for well over a decade. I'm a big label reader and don't like a lot of "extra" ingredients in things that don't need that extra garbage. I've seen a dozen ingredients on something like cottage cheese, so buyer beware. You never know what they add to things to that shouldn't have extra
Thank you for this. You are my guiding light for my foray into Thai cuisine. I wonder if even though you don't detect the maple-bourbon flavor, if it has still had some effect in enriching the umami aspect of the dish, perhaps given it a slightly more interesting and deeper dimension.
I've been on the Red Boat boat for some time now and really like it, using it in various non-Asian dishes too (stews, soups, even chile). I recently picked up Son fish sauce after reading about it on line. The sodium content is 60% and protein is 5%, so it's probably closer to RB flavor-wise. Anyone else tried this brand? Planning to add some Abalone if I can find it! Thanks for another great informative video!
Pinneberg Germany, here: I used Squid, then found Megachef (golden label) and finally Red Boat after your test back then. Our "Asia Markt" here in Pinneberg apologized for charging 12,90€ for the RB. Found 2 offers online: 10 and 14€ (plus shipping). But that was 250ml. And theirs is 500ml. I even posted our local fish monger your recipe "new crab fried rice", a while ago. 'Cause they are offering meals at their shop. And I've tried the different oyster sauces, even with our neighbours. Thanks for this update! I'll stay tuned!
love your video. i have not try all the fish sauce in this video yet, but i always use regular squid to cook or to make the sweet and sour fish sauce to eat with egg rolls or some other dish that needed the same sauce . Because it stronger flavor of fish and saltier , and i use 3 crabs(Viet Huong) to eat it raw. i'll try the Red boat and the abalone next time. thank you for the video.
So I don't know if you guys watched I love Lucy. But there is an episode called, "vitametavegamin". And this was your vitametavegamin moment and my wife and I laughed so hard at you sliding the spoonfuls of fish sauce in your mouth between blinks 😅😅😅. It was so funny to see you eat the nastiest ingredient that makes other things taste so good. Thanks for the laugh 😂😂😂
I finally bought Squid during my most recent trip to Bangkok last November. My go-to brand has always been ทิพรส, but I got curious about Squid (along with mushroom soy sauce) because of your videos. I haven’t opened rhe Squid one yet because I still have a huge bottle of ทิพรส open, but I look forward to taste it. Red Boat, I also learned about it from your old video - so I bought one last July when I was in Vietnam. And wow: the stuff is awesome. That was just the less expensive one so now I’m also curious about the maple-aged one. I was planning to buy Red Boat again when I go back to Vietnam on vacation later this month.
Also, a little trivia about Filipino fish sauce (which we call “patis”). In the last decade or so, we’ve seen a lot of products marked as patis-flavored sauce, which we assumed was also patis Turns out, we have legal standards about what is considered fish sauce vs. “simulated” ones (which then need tobe labeled patis-flavored). And since it seems production of fish sauce has become expensive here, from what I understand, patis-flavored sauce has become common, too. So I’ve taken to really checking the labels because they often look the same here and buy specific classic brands. This is also why I stock up on nam pla when I travel to Thailand. Authentic fish sauce is way superior.
The thing with Red Boat is, you need to treat it like a concentrate and not use the same amount as lower nitrogen fish sauces. In that regard, you can use half as much and thus the value proposition sky rockets. I use only a tiny amount of Red Boat in Pho, whereas other brands you need to dump tablespoons nonstop. Using less for the same umami effect and in essence less sodium than the others when matching the same protein content.
the thing with Vietnamese brand fish sauce is that we divide them into 2 categories: 1 with pressed fish sauce, 2 with regular fish sauce. With pressed one, if we use it raw then we have add sugar, garlic and chilli for milder the sauce and some water too, but very ideally to use in cooking. Most of pressed fish sauce is very expensive and not in mass product, only family products because. The regular fish sauce can use directly on food with adding any ingredient and quite similar to squid brand here, much cheaper and less fishy to compare to pressed one.
This is such a cool video, but also becsuse I'm looking for a shrimp paste substitute and I'm thinking the red boat maple bourbon may be a good one to try since its so funky 😊 these all look sooo interesting- I want them all 😂
Red Boat brand is my favourite, their ingredients are just anchovies and salt, they don’t add stupid unnecessary ingredients which doesn’t make any difference
I picked up the abalone on my last trip to Bangkok. It’s been sitting in my cupboard for months, as I was not sure how best to use it. Your video inspired me! Gonna use it for my next batch of prik nam pla!
I like Red Boat. I use it as a condiment mostly. I put it on buttered grits. Sometimes straight up in steamed rice and fried egg. It's my secret weapon in gumbo. Shhhhh... don't tell my hubby.
Here in Thailand the Squid Premium can be bought for as little as 34 baht (for a 300M bottle) about 97 cents and the regular 16 baht, 46 cents. Never seen the Red Boat brand in the supermarkets. The Abalone brand is available for 45 Baht about 1.29 USD. Most Thais seem to make do with the ordinary cheap versions.
Red Boat is made in Vietnam then they ship big tanks (I think, the one that holds like 1000 liters or more) of their products to California for bottling and distribution so I don’t think you can find that brand in South East Asia
Really interesting. I use 3 sauces for cooking Thai and related cooking, Squid brand pleb fish sauce, kikkoman all purpose soy sauce and whatever Indonesian style dark sweet soy sauce I can find. I can see using these expensive fish sauces for dipping sauce recipes. Thanks Pailin.
My regular squid fish sauce is great for cooking. Blue bottle fish brand is my favorite because reasonably priced and delicious. Thank you for sharing. 😁😁😘😘🥰🥰
As a Thai,About 20 years ago on Silom Rd.Bangkok I tried Abalone because of the pharmacist .Yes,the old man said that his relative makes it and recommended that I should definitely try it .He sold me OTC in his pharmacy shop from now on I only use Abalone even if the double price.
