Not that different from Thai fish sauce.
I’m not usually picky about food, as long as it is natural and not processed-but when my husband was in the military, I was friends with another military wife who was from Thailand-she was fond of serving kimchee, fermented soybean curd and that awful fish sauce every time she had dinner guests. My husband liked all three items-but I could never even get past the smell-I would not let him bring any of it into the house, ever...
It does sound similar and just as horrible-according to historians, the Romans used “fish sauce” on just about everything, too...