Red Boat

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Red Boat fish sauce

Red Boat is a brand of premium Phu Quoc fish sauce.

History[edit]

The company was founded by Cuong Pham, who was born in Vietnam and grew up in Saigon.[1][2][3] His family had a small fish sauce factory in Phu Quoc.[1][2] Cuong emigrated to the United States in 1979 to join his siblings when he was 20, after having spent nine months in a refugee camp in Malaysia.[1][2][4]

Dissatisfied with the Thai-style fish sauce available in the United States, which was more suited to Thai cuisine than to that of Vietnam, and dismayed when on a 2005 visit to Phu Quoc he discovered that artisanal producers were being forced to either cut down on production or produce lower-quality products, in 2006 Cuong returned to Vietnam and bought a friend's family-operated fish sauce barrel house in Phu Quoc.[1][5] He incorporated in Milpitas, California, as Viet Phu in 2011.[5]

Anhing logo

The first bottles were sold in 2011.[5] Pham sold the first bottles from the back of an SUV to Asian supermarkets in California.[5] He sent bottles to food influencers such as chefs and bloggers.[5]

In 2014 the company won a trademark infringement suit that had been brought against it by Anhing, a California maker of fish sauce whose logo included the image of a red junk.[6]

Production[edit]

Anchovies used in production are salted on the fishing boat before being transported.[7] The salt is locally harvested and is stored for several months before using to mellow its flavor.[7] The anchovies are fermented with salt in a 3:1 ratio in large wooden barrels holding about 13 tons of anchovies each.[7]

The company as of 2024 had 85 12-ton barrels of salted anchovies fermenting at a time.[1] Only the first pressings of the fermented anchovies is bottled as sauce.[1] Final sauces are blended from various vats to achieve consistency in flavor across batches.[1] The ingredients of the final sauces are black anchovies and local sea salt; no other ingredients are added.[1][2][8][9]

The fermenting plant is located on a river; fishing boats unload their anchovies directly onto the dock.[10][7]

Distribution[edit]

As of 2024 the brand is only available in the United States. According to Saveur, this is "due in part to its significantly higher price point"; at the time a 17 oz (525ml) bottle of Red Boat cost approximately US$13.[1] According to Bloomberg News, Red Boat's prices are typically three or four times the price of mass-produced fish sauces.[5]

Products[edit]

Red Boat 50°N Phamily Reserve

Red Boat produces several fish sauces. The original version, which has a nitrogen grade (°N) of 40,[1] and a Phamily Reserve graded at 50°N, which according to Saveur has an intense umami flavor.[7][11][5] At one time they produced a 35°N version.[2] The company also creates custom blends for several chefs.[1]

In addition to fish sauces, the company makes fish "salts", which are a dehydrated version of the sauces.[12][13][7][5]

In 2021 the Pham, Diep Tran, and Tien Nguyen released a cookbook, The Red Boat Fish Sauce Cookbook.[3][14][4]

Reception[edit]

In 2012 Food & Wine named it to their list of the year's 10 best products.[15] America's Test Kitchen rated it the highest among the fish sauces they reviewed, crediting its high nitgrogen grade for mellowing the saltiness typical of lower-protein fish sauces.[16] Bloomberg News call the flavor "singular...less of a fish taste and more of a tantalizing funk like that of Iberico ham or Parmesan cheese", also crediting the higher nitrogen grade.[5] German chef The Duc Ngo credits Red Boat for "generating a new global interest in fish sauce".[5] According to the LA Times, Red Boat is "the darling of celebrity chefs".[5] Sunset Magazine called Red Boat "the world's premier manufacturer of the essential Vietnamese condiment".[3]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Dao, Dan Q. (2018-06-14). "Family-Produced Fish Sauce in Phú Quốc, Vietnam". Saveur. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  2. ^ a b c d e Fabricant, Florence (2011-07-12). "New Artisanal Fish Sauces". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  3. ^ a b c Clausing, Nicole (2021-12-06). "How the First Family of Fish Sauce Does a Holiday Feast". Sunset Magazine. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  4. ^ a b Puckett, Susan. "Cookbook Review: The secret is in the (fish) sauce". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ISSN 1539-7459. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Boudreau, John (16 December 2018). "Ex-Apple Engineer Takes on Big Fish Sauce". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  6. ^ Kim, Victoria (2014-09-16). "In court, a trademark battle turns personal for two fish sauce makers". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Lebovitz, David (2019-02-07). "A Visit to Red Boat Fish Sauce". David Lebovitz. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  8. ^ "Red Boat Fish Sauce". Food52. 2013-11-15. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  9. ^ Kindelsperger, Nick (2016-01-06). "Fish sauce: The secret ingredient that will transform the way you cook". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  10. ^ Hopfner, Jonathan (2017). "Island Paradise" (PDF). DestinAsian.
  11. ^ Dao, Dan Q. (2017-04-22). "How Chefs Around America Are Pushing Southeast Asian Fish Sauce to its Limits". Saveur. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  12. ^ Migrant Kitchen:Beyond Pho. PBS. Event occurs at 7:15.
  13. ^ Stockwell, Anna (2019-03-15). "Why I'm Using Anchovy Salt on (Almost) Everything". Epicurious. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  14. ^ "An ace L.A. team is the secret sauce behind the Red Boat cookbook". Los Angeles Times. 2022-03-05. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  15. ^ "Top 10 Food Products of 2012 - Hungry Crowd | Food & Wine". web.archive.org. 2012-12-31. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  16. ^ The Best Fish Sauce to Use in Your Cooking. America's Test Kitchen. Event occurs at 1:15.

Further reading[edit]

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