"DC" wrote in message
...
I've seen Bagoong in jars with a little preserving liquid here as well
(UK)
& know them as a Filipino ingredient but have never really tried it. Your
best bet for getting your hands on ikan bilis which are allows sun dried
is
to try a Thai, Malaysian or Indonesian supermarket. Apart from that...
it's
a long shot but you can try making them yourself if you live in a very hot
&
sunny place. We use to as kids, go fishing with nets along the beach &
catch
small fish/ikan bilis/silver fish, shrimps etc. which we would use to make
a
variety of sun dried ingredients for later on in the year. The tiny silver
fish (2-3cm) would be left to dry in the sun fresh from the sea & when
dried
has a natural saltiness from the sea water. You would simply fry it in oil
until golden brown & you would eat it with your nasi lemak. Ikan Bilis are
slightly larger (5-10cm) & prob. known as anchovies in the West. It too is
dried w/o washing & has a slight saltiness to it. The tiny shrimps &
prawns
are used for Chincalook, blacan & prawn crackers.


I love your stories, DC. Thanks!


Pedas in Malay means hot/spicy & i don't know if it means the same in
Filipino... if it's any help.


Looking at a Tagalog dictionary, doesn't seem like it means that in
Filipino. Though, I wouldn't be surprised if it was so in some other of the
many Filipino languages...

Anyway, most bagoong (fermented fish and shrimp) use rather small critters.
The bagoong padas uses these nice, fingure-sized things, so I'm guessing
"padas" refers to that fish.


Copeland Marks says you can eat ikan bilis "out of hand
with, perhaps, a glass of wine, as I do."

Sun dried ikan bilis fried with sugar & chilli is a reg. bar snack,
normally
drunk with locally brewed beer. But from what i hear, silverfish & ikan
bilis are not in abundance as it use to be before in the 60's/70's. Maybe
it's over fished or the local waters are polluted.


I think I'm born to love the Malaysian cuisine to death, but I have very
little experience in it, unfortunately.... But the more I read about it,
the better it gets. I'll need to head out there sometime.

Peter