Nuoc cham, nuoc mam

One of my jobs as a kid was to prepare whatever dipping sauce we were going to use for our meal. I was confused at first whenever my mom told me to prepare the nuoc mam, because I didn't know what to use and when and for what. I've realized that my preparations of these sauces will never taste the same as my mother's for some reason, but knowing how to make nuoc cham or nuoc mam pha will get you pretty far with a lot of Vietnamese dishes, so I decided to make a separate post for it for easy reference. When I make it, I usually make a mason jar full and keep it in the fridge, it lasts for about a 1 month. But you can play around with the proportions to make as little or as much as you need. You can also add more sugar if you want it to be a little sweeter, more fish sauce if you like this sauce saltier. This is the sauce you would use for vermicelli dishes, rice dishes, and as a dipping sauce for things like cha gio.

Nuoc cham

2 tbspns. fish sauce
1 lime's worth of juice (if you don't have fresh limes, use white vinegar to taste)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1.5 tbspn. white sugar
1 cup room temperature water
Red chili sauce (Tuong ot toi, not the kind you use for pho. It is in a jar, not a squeezy bottle)

Mix the sugar, garlic and lime juice together until the sugar dissolves. Add the fish sauce, water and red chili sauce to taste.