PRODUCT STORY OF “ÔNG BA ỚT” FISH SAUCE
For a long time, fish sauce has been an indispensable condiment in Vietnamese family meals. Moreover, fish sauce is also a characteristic cultural feature of Vietnam. The craft of making fish sauce dates back a long time, becoming a traditional profession of Đức Lợi. Speaking of Đức Lợi fish sauce, people immediately think of the characteristic flavor from the sea, which is rustic yet delicious, rich and savory just like the honest, sincere, and affectionate local people.
To create a delicious fish sauce product, quality is of utmost importance in the ingredient selection step. According to experienced fish sauce making households in Đức Lợi, to choose good fish, one must buy them from January to April every year. The fish used for salting must be fresh, neither too big nor too small. Because if the fish is too big, it takes longer to decompose after salting, or it decomposes unevenly, so when extracting the first-run fish sauce, the color is not fragrant and not dark enough, making the fish sauce less delicious. The fish sauce makers have fermented the fish in ceramic jars and dried them outdoors. Perhaps thanks to the sunny and windy climate of Quảng land, it has brought the rich and delicious flavor of Đức Lợi fish sauce.
With the desire to continue maintaining and developing the traditional profession left by our ancestors, I - Dương Văn Dũng along with several neighboring households have stepped forward, nurturing the hope of developing the Đức Lợi fish sauce making craft. On December 30, 2021, with all my heart full of enthusiasm and great motivation from my family and loved ones, I boldly started a business with the “Ông Ba Ớt” fish sauce brand. “Ông Ba Ớt” fish sauce is made according to the traditional manual marinating method, fermenting and salting fish in wooden vats for a period of 15 months or more. After a completely natural fermentation period, the very first drops of fish sauce are born with a cockroach wing color, bright and clear straw yellow, with a very unique gentle aroma. Especially, upon tasting, there is a salty sensation on the tip of the tongue, then spreading to sweetness down to the throat, so it is called the natural aftertaste sweetness of amino acid protein that cannot be confused with any other fish sauce. For this reason, “Ông Ba Ớt” fish sauce is trusted and used by a large number of local people and other provinces. This is both a motivation, a belief, and a great challenge for the “Ông Ba Ớt” fish sauce production facility for us to constantly develop our products further to meet consumers' expectations for the “Ông Ba Ớt” fish sauce product.
The “Ông Ba Ớt” fish sauce production facility has maximized the use of fresh natural ingredients and available local labor, creating stable jobs, increasing income for rural people, and serving as a basis for preserving and developing the Đức Lợi fish sauce village. To promote and affirm the value of products from the Đức Lợi fish sauce craft village, I decided to register to participate in the local OCOP product program. With relentless efforts, we believe that the “Ông Ba Ớt” Fish Sauce product of the facility will be increasingly trusted and used by consumers inside and outside the province.