I have red boat in my kitchen but my favorite got to be three crabs brand. Do you know what is up with the price hike of fish sauces lately?
Never been to Vietnam but will take a trip to your motherland in the future.
when you buy any brand of viet fish sauce, look for the word "nuoc mam nhi" which translates to fine quality fish sauce.
I like the 3 crabs brand too. My family uses those for cooking and dipping sauce. For maggi soy sauce, they got the french kind that is costly for a reason. $30 a bottle on amazon. My family also has a bottle of these but only for dipping and only for special guest. Like fine cognac, quality you can taste.
For hot pepper, the viet restaurants would used the fresh pepper called "ot xiem" They have the generic version called "ot hiem" that you can buy. I'm telling you. These peppers are not all that expensive like $1 for 50 gram worth or 20,000 vietnam dong but to buy them is a whole another story. You gotta grow you own. My cousin came back from vietnam with 2 peppers in his pocket and passed customs. He then grew it in his backyard and now he has fresh peppers to eat. It is tiny and one bite will blast that pepper flavor in your mouth and it is kinda spicy but the hotness will die down fast, unlike other peppers.
you can buy their seed to try to grow it. Only $4 but not sure about shipping though.
https://asiangarden.net/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=211