Fish Sauce

We went to sign the lease and get the keys for our new apartment last night. Afterward, we walked to dinner at a Thai restaurant a block or so from the new abode. For the first 20 or so minutes of our meal, I was distracted by a guy at the next table. As we sat down, he was tasting the dish he'd just been brought, and was insistent that it contained fish sauce, which was apparently abhorrent to him. I don't know if he was a full-on vegetarian, or just had an intense aversion to fish sauce. His girlfriend said she couldn't taste it in hers, but he made the waiter take back both dishes. Then he spent the next 15 minutes standing back in front of the kitchen window arguing with the manager, saying "So you were watching them the whole time, and you know they didn't put any fish sauce in it?". It was more relaxing when they finally left!