I am familiar with that smell for sure, here in Cambodia the salty stink comes from prahok, basically fish paste on steroids. It's fermented for several weeks/months before use to give it that extra oomph! I've been vegan for nearly 20 years, so I never tried prahok, but back in the USA I used shrimp paste quite a lot in my teenage years while learning how to cook Thai food.
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Hahaha, I'm imagining the smell of that prahok and I'm really amazed how something so smelly could bring so much flavor to food. The same with fish oil.