Vietnamese Nước Chấm
A bright sweet-sour-salty Vietnamese dipping sauce sharpened with lime, garlic and chile.
This is a practical home-kitchen version intended to support the recipes in the Fringe Table collection. Household and regional versions vary, so treat the quantities as a useful starting point rather than a claim to one definitive formula.
Ingredients & method
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 3 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 1 garlic clove, finely minced
- 1 small red chile, thinly sliced, optional
Method
- 1. Stir the warm water and sugar until the sugar dissolves.
- 2. Add fish sauce and lime juice, then taste. The sauce should balance salty, tart and sweet without any one element dominating.
- 3. Stir in garlic and chile. Let stand 10 minutes before serving so the aromatics perfume the sauce.