Goi Ca Nam O — the Raw Fish Dish of a Da Nang Fishing Village
Herring straight off the boat, cured in lime, wrapped with forest leaves. A fishermen's dish, and not one for people in a hurry.
This page is translated from Vietnamese. Prices and opening hours are checked against Vietnamese sources — see the Vietnamese version for the most recent update.
About fifteen kilometres from central Da Nang, towards the foot of the Hai Van Pass, is a fishing village called Nam Ô. It is known for two things: fish sauce and raw fish salad. Both begin with the same ingredient — herring.
What goi ca Nam O is
This is raw fish cured in lime. Fresh herring is filleted, boned and thinly sliced, then dressed with lime juice or vinegar until the flesh cures — turning from translucent to opaque white.
The fish is then squeezed dry and tossed with thính, roasted rice ground fine, along with chopped galangal, ginger and toasted sesame. The thính absorbs the remaining moisture, takes away any fishiness and coats each slice in a fragrant layer.
There are two ways to serve it: dry, with the fish tossed in thính as above, and wet, with the fish left plain and dipped in its own sauce.
The dipping sauce is the hardest part
The sauce for gỏi cá Nam Ô is not ordinary mixed fish sauce. The villagers cook it from the bones and heads of the fish, pounded fine and strained, then simmered with chilli, garlic, galangal and sugar until it thickens.
The result is reddish-brown, thick and strongly of fish — dipping the salad into it brings two things from the same source back together.
It is hard to reproduce exactly at home, but you can get close using first-press fish sauce as the base, plus pounded galangal, garlic, chilli, sugar and a little thính to thicken.
The greens have to be forest leaves
This is what separates gỏi cá Nam Ô from other raw fish dishes. The accompaniment is not ordinary lettuce and herbs but wild leaves gathered at the foot of the Hai Van Pass: cóc leaf, trâm leaf, dừng leaf, đinh lăng and young mango leaf.
These leaves are astringent and slightly bitter — and that is exactly what cuts the fishiness and balances the richness of raw fish.
How to eat it
Lay out a sheet of rice paper, add several kinds of leaf, put the fish on top, roll it up and dip it deep in the sauce. Crumble a little grilled rice cracker in for crunch.
One honest warning
This is raw fish. Eat it only where the fish is genuinely fresh and properly handled — meaning in Nam Ô itself or at well-regarded places. Do not try to make it at home with supermarket fish that has been frozen and thawed more than once.
Specialties used in this dish
Nước mắm Nhĩ Nhựt Hoàng – chai 1 lít The first drip drawn from the fermenting barrel — the highest protein grade, amber-brown, gently aromatic. 110.000₫ 
Mắm cá cơm nguyên con Nhựt Hoàng – hũ 500g Whole anchovies cured with the flesh still intact — salty, deeply savoury, a meal with nothing but hot rice. 85.000₫ Prices are in Vietnamese đồng.
Food
- Banh Trang Cuon Thit Heo — the Dish to Eat in Da NangDouble-skinned pork, a dozen kinds of herb, dew-dried rice paper — but what decides everything is still the bowl of fermented anchovy sauce.
- Bun Mam Nem — the Da Nang Noodle Bowl With No Broth at AllNo broth, no stockpot. The whole bowl rests on one thing: a well-mixed bowl of fermented anchovy sauce.
- Mi Quang — the Vietnamese Noodle Bowl With Almost No BrothDo not drown it. Mi Quang needs only a little thick sauce at the bottom of the bowl — enough to coat the noodles, not enough to drink.