The Incredible Adventure of Shrimp Paste Snipped from http://adambalic.typepad.com/the_art_and_mystery_of_fo/2008/06/rachel-laudan-r.html **** Recently I have been reading as much as I can find on Anglo-Indian foods and customs. It is a fascinating area of research in its own right, but it also often throws unexpected light on other aspects of food history. One of the centers of Anglo-Indian activity in London was The Oriental Club, which seemed to be entirely populated by ex-colonial stereotypes. One interesting recipe published in a small cookbook titled "Indian Cookery" (1861) by Richard Terry, the club's chef is called "Bullachong": "Pick and clean 2 quarts of shrimps, or prawns, pound them well in a mortar, rub them through a coarse wire sievve; place them again in the mortar, add 1-oz. of glaze, 2 cloves of garlic, or green ginger, if to be had, 4 chillies pounded very fine, 1 tablespoonfull of tomata sauce, and the juice of half a lemon: beat all well together add 4 tablespoonsfull of ghee, melt 4 pats of butter in an omelette pan, pour in the bullachong, and fry, keeping moving the whole time; place it on your dish, pour gravy round, and serve. This may be kept some time by placing it in bottles, and keeping well corked" This shrimp paste was most likely intended as a relish to go with other dishes, but what interested me was the resemblance in the name with the modern Malay "Belacan". As part of the 19th century expansion of the British Empire, parts what is now modern Malaysia were formerly the colonies of British Malaya. Prior to this period the British had a huge presence in this region. So is "Bullachong" simply a British adaption of a Malay dish? Are there earlier English references to this dish? Obviously there are numerous references, two of the earliest are of particular interest: **** [snip] =============== ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India