If you want to explore Nha Trang cuisine, you must first go to the fishing port, the fishing wharf, the fish market. There you can catch every rhythm of life of the people of the fishing village. And there is also the smell of the ocean with baskets of fresh fish returning on the boats.
In the 10th lunar month, it is the anchovy fishing season, boats flock to Vinh Truong fishing port, Hon Ro port, Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province. According to the lunar calendar, every year, fishermen in the South Central Coast have 2 seasons to catch anchovies according to the water flow: July - August and October - November.
With nearly 50 years of making traditional fish sauce, 584 Nha Trang Seafood Joint Stock Company seems to be the only unit that can maintain and develop the profession's brand in the storm of market mechanisms. The batches of anchovies brought ashore are purchased by the unit and transferred to processing factories.
From the experience of hundreds of workers, the traditional method of processing fish sauce of Nha Trang people is summarized, according to the appropriate ratio of anchovies and salt to produce drops of straw-yellow fish sauce, with its own rich flavor.
The story of keeping traditional fish sauce or following the industrial fish sauce market has also made it difficult for many fish sauce makers in Nha Trang to choose. There were periods when many local fish sauce businesses continuously went bankrupt.
For those who used to steer the 584 Nha Trang fish sauce brand, the problem is how to keep the profession developing and creating jobs for workers. Traditional but not outdated is the way that the fish sauce makers here choose to go.
The 584 Nha Trang fish sauce brand is registered for protection, maintaining the quality of traditional fish sauce and wearing a new coat with more professional packaging, design, and customer care, aiming at sustainable development activities.
As a result, culinary products from the coastal region of Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa are not only found in every family's meals and on supermarket shelves, but also exported to the US, Korea...
At the ceremony to announce products achieving the Vietnam National Brand in 2024 held on the evening of November 4, 584 Nha Trang fish sauce was one of 360 products honored. This is also the only fish sauce product to achieve the title of "Vietnam National Brand" for the third consecutive time.
And today, every diner coming to Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa holding in their hands the "hometown gift" product, the bottles of 584 Nha Trang fish sauce, further understands the story of preserving hometown products of the coastal city's people.
