Hi- I was in Whole Foods tonight, and I noticed that they carry Red Boat 40. It is $7.99 a bottle.

OK, I'll 'fess up: every oncet in a while, I'll pull the Red Boat bottle out of the fridge, tip a bit into a teaspoon, and drink it.

Sooooo? I don't care what you think.

Geo

NFriday wrote:Hi- I was in Whole Foods tonight, and I noticed that they carry Red Boat 40. It is $7.99 a bottle.

Whole paycheck strikes again. I am not sure why I step foot into this store. Yes, they carry Red Boat 40 and it is $7.99. At one of the stores in the Argyle/Broadway area I paid $6.75. Except that the $6.75 bottle is 17 oz and the $7.99 bottle is 8.45 ounces. Asian grocery is charging 39.7 cents per ounce. Whole foods is charging 94.5 cents per ounce. That is over 2.3 times as expensive!!!!!

I saw bottles of Red Boat at Saigon Sisters in the Ogilvie Station French Market for either $12 or $15. Can't remember for sure but I think it was the latter. Don't remember the bottle size either but at that price, I suppose it doesn't matter, they beat Whole Foods.

Hi- Yes you can find fish sauce a lot cheaper on Argyle than you can at Whole Foods, but how much is it at H Mart? I am sure it is much more expensive there than it is at any of the stores on Argyle. Back in the 90's I had a roommate from Taiwan, and she would get all her Chinese food at the Vietnamese stores on Argyle, because they were way cheaper than any of the Asian stores in the Northern suburbs.

H-Mart does not carry Red Boat.
Fresh Farms on Touhy will sell you a 250ml bottle of 40N for about $8.
Larger sizes and the small bottles of 50N, I have only found available from Red Boat itself on-line.-Dick

For what it's worth, was in Viet Hoa yesterday killing some time between my two older boys' soccer games, and the Red Boat 40N is now $9.95 for a half-liter bottle.

If you cannot make it up there (or other places you can find a better price) and do not mind paying a premium, Mrs. Greens at Webster and Lincoln has the smaller bottles (250 ml) for about $8. They also have (or at least have had) the Blis barrel-aged Red Boat, but do not recall the price.

Matt wrote:For what it's worth, was in Viet Hoa yesterday killing some time between my two older boys' soccer games, and the Red Boat 40N is now $9.95 for a half-liter bottle.

I also noticed Viet Hoa's nearly 50% price increase. A short walk will take you to Tai Nam (4925 N Broadway) where they sell the same 500mL bottles of Red Boat 40˚N for a reasonable $6.99. They also have 9999, another 40˚N Phu Quoc nuoc mam nhi, for the same price. Has anyone tried this stuff? Both are shelved near the checkouts, not with the lesser fish sauces.

Trader Joe's now carries Red Boat. $4.49 for the smaller bottle, I believe.

8.45 oz bottle of Red Boat 40 $7.95 at Sur la Table (Mich Ave/Lincoln Park/Old Orchard/Oakbrook Ctr. or of course by mail, orders over $59 ship free).

ronnie_suburban wrote:My favorite is 3 Crabs ....

my usual & current favorite, but after reading this thread, I'll have to try some others.

and I LOVE the following use idea:

boudreaulicious wrote:I am now having visions of 3 Crabs Bloody Mary's garnished with Issan sausage, shrimp and cilantro skewers...

Sweet Willie wrote: . . . and I LOVE the following use idea:

boudreaulicious wrote:I am now having visions of 3 Crabs Bloody Mary's garnished with Issan sausage, shrimp and cilantro skewers...

This is a great riff on more classic Bloody variations that use worcestershire sauce, Clamato or both.

=R=

Clamato, Ronnie, damn straight! Up here in Canadia that's what people use for your standard Bloody Mary. In Montréal's Costcos (= we have 7 of them!), you can buy Clamato in the can, by the case. Ummm! Might be nice to put a bit of Red Boat 40N in, in addition.

Geo

Geo wrote:Clamato, Ronnie, damn straight! Up here in Canadia that's what people use for your standard Bloody Mary.

called a Bloody Ceasar (IIRC due to having so many of them )

They carry Red Boat for a reasonable price (17oz for $8.99) at Seafood City, the newish filipino grocery. Also of interest & maybe better news, they also carry MegaChef. MegaChef is a naturally fermented product aged for 2 years (a year longer than Red Boat), and in a side by side with Red Boat I found it to have a smoother flavor, and it's now my new favorite. The best part, it's $3.49 for 23.6oz.





Seafood City
5033 N Elston Ave,
Chicago, IL 60630

Thank you. I've needed a good reason to go there.

Just did another side by side, and waffling. FWIW, Red Boat is definitely more intense, a more concentrated saltier fishier product, but both are legit.

What do the 40° N and 30°N signify?

stevez wrote:What do the 40° N and 30°N signify?

The maker of Red Boat says:

What is the difference between 40N and 50N?

"Degrees N is an industry standard to measure the number of grams of nitrogen per liter of fish sauce which relates to the protein level. The highest quality fish sauces are greater than 30N with the flavor becoming more rich and complex with larger N designation."

--
edc

stevez wrote:What do the 40° N and 30°N signify?

In Post #55, Rene G wrote:

BR wrote:Very interesting to say the least - the label certainly makes you think of Red Boat, and both claim to be extra virgin from Phu Quoc, and carry the 40 degrees north designation. Worth a try certainly. They didn't have any with the 50 degrees north label, did they?

I've never seen Red Boat 50˚N in a local store, and I've looked at quite a few. I'm ever hopeful though. By the way, the ˚N refers to grams of nitrogen per liter (indicative of protein content), not latitude. I have no idea why the fish sauce industry uses that nonstandard notation.

You can order the 50N on-line as well as larger bottles of the 40N Red Boat.
We use the 40N to make a traditional Nước mắm pha and the 50N is used drop by drop for an additional kick.-Richard

Red Boat 17oz, $8.99 @ SeaFood City yesterday.
In the interim years, we have gone exclusively to Red Boat 40 & 50.
I did acquire a bottle of Red Boat 'Phamily Reserve' recently in a 6.8oz bottle with a Cognac bottle shape. So pretty that I haven't opened it yet.
http://redboatfishsauce.com/shop/index. ... duct_id=53
-Richard

It's good to know that I got an LTH recommended fish sauce (Red Boat 40) without consulting this thread before shopping. I made the Smitten Kitchen Candy Pork recipe this weekend and didn't have enough fish sauce on hand. Viet Hao on Argyle had several options and I went with the one that seemed purest to my eye. Granted it was twice the price or more than cheaper options, but I needed confidence that it was gluten free. The dish turned out well and we're just getting the fish sauce smell out of the house.

WE did finally open the bottle of ‘Reserve’ and it is Red Boat at it’s finest and strongest!-Richard

A Visit to Red Boat Fish Sauce in Vietnam

https://www.davidlebovitz.com/a-visit-t ... -phu-quoc/

Thanks for the link!
Very nice article.
Now I have to find the Salt!
-Richard

Wow, I got red boat 40, also without knowing LTH recommended it, at Assi plaza about a month ago, I think around $8 for 17 oz bottle. It was marked as at a special price.

Tnx for the link! Great story, love Red Boat ever since I read about it here a few years ago. Gotta get the salt--look at what this guy does with Red Boat sauce, salt, and steak!

Geo

http://kosherdosher9.blogspot.com/2018/