Ahh… the quintessential ingredient in Thai cooking. Fish sauce is known as "Thai salt" – it's added to everything to beef up the salty qualities of the dish.

Finding the right bottle of fish sauce is a make-or-break deal with cooking Thaifood. The brand of choice here is "Golden Boy" – made in Thailand – which features a red label showing a baby sitting on a globe with a bottle of fish sauce in his arms.

Finding the right bottle of fish sauce is a make-or-break deal with cooking Thaifood. The brand of choice here is "Golden Boy" – made in Thailand – which features a red label showing a baby sitting on a globe with a bottle of fish sauce in his arms. Uwajimaya from time to time has stocked Golden Boy, but these days it's rare to find.

On a recent business trip to Atimi Software in Vancouver, I discovered T & T supermaket that sells Golden Boy. You'll get weird looks carting 3 cases of the stuff back across the border, but it's worth its price in embarassment.

Tra Chang is a good backup and can be bought online from a local distributor in Issaquah, WA.

Uwajimaya in Seattle, has Squid Band to get you rolling – it has a green label and green cap.

Check out Michaels in-depth write up on fish sauce.