Fish Sauceįish sauce is another fermented seafood-based condiment that is used widely in Southeast Asian cooking. If you are unable to find shrimp paste in a store near you, here are several alternatives you can use in its place. This potentially makes it an ingredient that is difficult to find if you live outside of Southeast Asia unless you can access a well-stocked Asian grocer near you. However, shrimp paste has yet to catch on in popularity in other regions of the world, unlike its other funky fermented compatriots from Asia- miso paste, gochujang, and fish sauce. In Thai curries, Vietnamese dipping sauces, Malaysian stir-fries, and countless other dishes, shrimp paste is added to provide a deep umami complexity. This produces a paste with a powerful funky odor, one that has been compared to rotting garbage or a strong blue cheese.īut despite its unappealing smell, shrimp paste plays the role of the unsung hero in a variety of dishes in the Southeast Asian region. Tiny shrimp, called krill, are ground into a paste, mixed with salt, and left to ferment and dry in the heat of the sun. The most vividly colored of them all, bagoóng alamáng from the Philippines, is less finely ground, with small shreds of shrimp still visible in the jars of the pink-purple condiment.Īcross its variations, shrimp paste is made from only two ingredients. Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore have versions that are dried to form dark brown blocks that crumble into chunks more intensely flavored than their cousins.
Thailand’s kapi is a thick paste in a deep mauve color, while Vietnam’s mắm ruốc has a looser consistency with a lighter purple tint. The Filipinos have christened their version ‘bagoóng alamáng’ĭespite the differences in their names, these regional variations of shrimp paste are all instantly recognizable from their pungent odor and their ubiquitous ability to elevate the flavors in many of your favorite Southeast Asian dishes.The Malaysians and Singaporeans have their ‘belacan’.In Vietnam it is ‘mắm tôm’ or ‘mắm ruốc’.What is Shrimp Paste?Įach country has its own version of shrimp paste.
Keep reading to choose the one you prefer. We’ve collected the top 12 alternatives to shrimp paste for you! Run out of shrimp paste or just don’t like the flavor of it?
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