Burmese · sauce/condiment

Ngapi Yay (Rakhine Fish-Paste Dipping Broth with Raw Vegetables)

Ngapi Yay (Rakhine Fish-Paste Dipping Broth with Raw Vegetables) reads citrus 6.0, sourness 5.7 and funk & ferment 5.3 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Burmese sauce/condiment, about 24 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 6.5 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 2.4 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 7.7 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 0.9 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 1.3 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 5.2 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Citrus 6.0 · Sourness 5.7 · Funk & Ferment 5.3 · Umami 5.0 · Allium 4.6 · Salinity 4.2 · Heat 4.1 · Marine & Briny 3.0 · Herbaceous 2.4 · Fruity 1.9 · Sweetness 1.8 · Floral 1.4 · Richness 1.3 · Warm Spice 0.9 · Bitterness 0.8 · Earthy 0.7

What's in it (11)

• rakhine ngapi — 60 g
• water — 500 g
• shallots — 120 g
• garlic — 20 g
• green bird chillies — 400 g
• tomatoes — 200 g
• lemongrass — 40 g
• lime juice — 44 g
• english cucumber — 200 g
• long beans — 150 g
• white cabbage — 150 g

Time & effort: about 24 min · effort: medium

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 12.1 kcal, 0.5 g protein, 0.1 g fat, 2.7 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (6 steps)

1. Understand what you are buying before you start. Ngapi is not one ingredient. Rakhine ngapi, from the coast, is made from small marine fish and salted comparatively lightly, so the broth it makes is briny and clean. Ayeyarwady delta ngapi is made from freshwater fish, is much saltier and reads heavier and muddier, and if you use it here start with half the quantity. In Shan State the same pantry slot is filled by pe ngapi, made from fermented soybeans and no fish at all. Ask which one you have; the label will often say only shrimp paste, which is a third thing again.
2. Mash the ngapi with 100 ml of the water in a bowl until it is a loose slurry with no lumps.
3. Put the slurry, the remaining water, the lemongrass, half the shallots and half the garlic in a small pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a bare simmer for 12 to 15 minutes. It will smell fiercely of low tide for the first few minutes and then settle into something savoury and almost meaty; that turn is the sign it is cooked.
4. Strain the broth through a fine sieve, pressing hard on the solids to get everything through, and discard the debris. You should have roughly 350 ml of thin, café-au-lait coloured broth.
5. Return the broth to the pan, add the tomatoes and simmer 5 minutes more until they collapse. Crush them roughly against the side of the pan with a spoon.
6. Off the heat, stir in the remaining raw shallot and garlic, the split chillies and the lime juice. Taste: it should be salty, sour and hot in that order, thin enough to drink but intense. Serve warm or at room temperature in a communal bowl with the cucumber, long beans and cabbage raw alongside for dipping, and rice on the side. This is a whole meal in Rakhine households, not a garnish.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Thai Sweet Chili Shrimp Skewers — Thai
• Ulam dengan Budu (Raw Herb Platter with Fermented Anchovy Sauce) — Malaysian
• Tom Yum Shrimp Soup — Thai
• Tam Mak Hoong (Pounded Green Papaya with Padaek and Field Crab) — Lao
• Nuoc Cham — Vietnamese

Keep reading: what citrus, sourness, funk & ferment mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.