Alex Buy a good brand of nam pla/fish sauce like Golden Boy. The cheap stuff like Toparos is dreadful. Fish Sauce is not stinky like kapi/shrimp paste. Mary-Anne Thai Food Editor http://thaifood.bellaonline.com/Site.asp sign up for my newsletters! On 8/16/06, Alex Silbajoris <asilbajo@hotmail.com> wrote: > > In my experience sauces tend to eventually turn brown and go stale, but not > actually bad. I'm currently working my way through a bottle of Ralph's > Righteous that Jim gave me ... um ... I don't know, mayve five or six years > ago. It is not as fresh-tasting or bright orange as it used to be, but it's > still OK to use. > > Then, there was that bottle of fish sauce I bought recently, let's just say > there were still bubbles in the ocean. Pretty scary when that stuff comes > up out of the bottle to prowl the cabinet shelf, and the kitchen smells like > low tide... > > >