FISH WITH ME

Thanks to the vloggers who share their recipes in their YouTube channels, I can now cook one of my favorite dishes: steamed Thai fish with lime sauce.

- NORMA O. CHIKIAMCO

When I first tasted this dish several years ago in a Thai restaurant in Manila, I was amazed. Not only was the fish tender and succulent, but the accompanying sauce also had the perfect balance of the sour, spicy, salty and sweet. The sauce was also substantial enough to be not just an accompaniment for the fish, but also to even be a soup to sip, savor and spread on cooked rice.

Alas, that restaurant soon closed and for a long time I hadn't been able to find the same dish elsewhere. It was only in these past few years that it made an appearance again in the menus of some rejuvenated Thai restaurants.

In the past when I tried to recreate this dish at home, I wasn't very successful. How to make that soupy sauce was the problem. The lack of real lime in Manila was another issue. Somehow, the green lemon grown in Baguio lacked the fragrance and the slightly sweet, slightly sour nature of those emerald green true limes.

Recently, I came upon some YouTube channels that featured recipes for this dish. What a revelation! It turned out that the secret to that soupy sauce is not just the limes, but also the chicken stock or broth, which serves as the base. And no wonder it has that enchanting balance of flavors. The broth is simmered with sugar, garlic, fish sauce (patis), chopped chilies and wansuy.