Tiparos Fish Sauce from Thailand in a 700 ml bottle with the yellow, red and navy label, for curries, larb, noodle soups and dipping sauces.
Tiparos has one of the most recognisable labels in Thai cooking: a yellow panel framed in red, a red oval with two Chinese characters above TIPAROS in white, and a wreath of blue-and-white wheat ears around it. A navy band below gives the net contents as 23 fl oz or 700 ml, and the line product of Thailand. The bottle is clear plastic with a twist in the shoulder and a white cap, and the sauce inside is a deep reddish amber. As general background, sauces related to the Roman garum have been used in the West since ancient times, and fish sauce has been embraced by chefs and home cooks around the world for the savoury depth it brings. In Thai food it is typically the main salty seasoning. Commonly, cooks season larb and nam tok with it alongside lime and toasted rice powder, splash it into tom yum and boat noodle soups, and mix it with lime, garlic and bird's-eye chilli for prik nam pla to spoon over rice and eggs. The twisted shoulder of the bottle gives a firm grip when pouring over a hot wok. Start with a teaspoon, since Tiparos is strongly salty, and build up from there.