Mắm nêm is a sauce made of fermented fish. Unlike the more familiar

nước mắm Fish sauce is a liquid condiment made from fish or krill that have been coated in salt and fermented for up to two years. It is used as a staple seasoning in East Asian cuisine and Southeast Asian cuisine, particularly Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, P ...

(fish sauce), mắm nêm is powerfully pungent, similar to

shrimp paste Shrimp paste or prawn sauce is a fermented condiment commonly used in Southeast Asian and Southern Chinese cuisines. It is primarily made from finely crushed shrimp or krill mixed with salt, and then fermented for several weeks. They are ei ...

. Many of the regions that produce fish sauce, for example duyên hải miền trung, also produce mắm nêm. It is commonly mixed with sugar,

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuri ...

, and spices to make a prepared sauce called ''mắm nêm pha sẵn'', the key ingredient in neem sauce.

References

''Mam nem'' on Danang Cuisine
Vietnamese cuisine Sauces {{condiment-stub