I put fish sauce in my pasta water. I put it in my chili. I put a few drops on fried eggs on a Tuesday morning when no one’s watching.
It doesn’t taste like fish. That’s the thing people can’t get past until they try it. Used correctly — a splash, not a pour — it disappears into a dish and leaves behind something you can’t name. Depth. Savoriness. The sense that whoever made this knew what they were doing.
Half the world has cooked with fermented fish for thousands of years. The Western kitchen is late to this and has been missing something because of it. A twelve-dollar bottle lasts months and quietly improves everything it touches.
Stop being precious about it.