Not many non-Thais can take to the heavy, pungent scent of fish sauce, certainly not the English.
At very authentic Thai spots in London like The Heron, one can catch a heady whiff of it, but nothing like what one gets in Bangkok where, at some places, the smell hits you like an olfactory sledgehammer. I once visited a fish sauce manufacturing factory - the smell in there could stun a horse.
But a minute drop of the elixir can transform the blandest dish into something memorable.
