In the Thai language, fish sauce, that fetid golden elixir that enhances most Thai dishes so fetchingly. Nam is water, or I suppose more correctly, liquid (as water itself can be nam or nam plao, plain liquid), while pla is fish, in this case, anchovies. I've written extensively on the manufacture and use of fish sauce, as well as its names in other Southeast Asian languages, at the fish sauce node. Check it out.

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