Dipping sauce
(Nuoc cham)
 
Dipping shrimp sauce for rice noodle and pork
Nuoc cham, or dipping sauce, is a very important part of the daily meals of Hanoians, regardless of their living standard.

Nuoc cham is often made from nuoc mam (fish sauce) and seasonings; however, depending on the dishes to be eaten with it. Nuoc cham may be made with fish sauce, soy sauce, shrimp paste with lime juice, or chilli and vinegar. There is also mam thinh, a kind of peanut sauce. Salt and black pepper with a little lime juice squeezed in are also employed as a simple but delicious nuoc cham, especially with shrimp or chicken.

Other kinds of nuoc cham are made from nuoc mam and sau (sapindus), nuoc mam and tomatoes, and nuoc mam and boiled eggs. Boiled cabbage and kohlrabi must be dipped into the nuoc cham made of vinegar and tomato. The sauce will be more delicious if it is served with a boiled egg crushed in it, making the sauce yellow and thick. This sauce will considerably reduce the bitterness of the cabbage.

For chicken, nuoc cham consists of salt and pepper with lime juice. Fried fish is served with a nuoc cham made of fish sauce mixed with lime juice and chilli. Duck should be dipped into a bowl of sauce made with lime juice, crushed garlic and ginger. Ginger (mixed with tuong soybean or fish sauce) is also the most important flavour in nuoc cham for beef and buffalo meat.
Boiled pork, fat and lean meat or meat from the head and the rump of a pig can be dipped into a bowl of fresh water shrimp paste, which has red colour and is mixed with stir-fried rice powder.

Thit cho (dog meat) must be served with shrimp paste mixed with lime juice. You can add a little rice liquor to this sauce and stir it up into a foam. The liquor will make the smell of the shrimp sauce become more delicate.
Roast beef and goat meat should be dipped in tuong Ban or tuong Cu Da soy sauce. If the tuong soy sauce is sour, you can mix it with a little sugar.

For bun cha (rice noodles and grilled pork) and bun nem (rice noodles with fried spring rolls), the sauce is much more sophisticated because it is the soul of these dishes. The sauce must be made with the highest quality nuoc mam (fish sauce), which is mixed with a little water, sugar, vinegar, perhaps ca cuong (belostomatid essence), pepper, and chilli.

Dipping sauce for spring rolls
At meals, a bowl of nuoc cham is often put in the centre of a round tray of food so that everyone can easily dip their food. After dipping, it is the custom to put the food into one's own bowl. One does not put the food directly into one's mouth. One should also be careful not to drip the dipping sauce onto other foods.

For example, pig's chitterlings are served with shrimp sauce, which, if accidentally dropped into another dish, may spoil it. It is also best to wait for others to dip so that one does not catch another's chopsticks with one's own.

Even within a family, tastes for foods and flavours differ; by using several kinds of nuoc cham, such different tastes can be accommodated. Typically, the cook should lightly season the food, allowing each diner to use nuoc cham to add as much or as little saltiness or other flavour as he or she wishes.