PROCESS:
squeeze lime juice in a small bowl Add fish sauce (aka Nam Pla) season with sugar and salt add remaining ingretients, stir
serve immediately with grilled meats and or vegetables sauce is amazing with scrambled eggs
This sauce is an excellent example of flavor balance, it combines the 4 major flavors sweet, sour, bitter and salt the lime is tart, the nam pla is bitter, the sugar is sweet, and the salt is, salty The 5th major flavor is Umami, which will come from the meat you eat the sauce with.
For Fun: Taste the lime juice alone, then taste it again after adding the fish sauce, it's amazing how the fish sauce neutralizes the tartness of the lime. Taste again as you add sugar and salt and see how the flavor is transformed with each addition. This should give you insight into how the sweet, sour, bitter and salt flavors work.
*you may add a few dashes of soy sauce instead of the salt
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup fresh lime juice 1 teaspoon fish sauce 1/2 teaspoon sugar 2 teaspoons minced garlic 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro 1 teaspoon shaved green onion 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes pinch saltĀ