"Monroe, of course..." > wrote in message
...
> In article >, "Peter Dy"
> > wrote:
>
> > What
> > is ikan bilis? Can't find it in my books.
>
> I think ikan bilis simply means 'little fish'. I know it chiefly as
> sambal ikan bilis, the anchovy relish served alongside nasi lemak.
> The dried anchovies are soaked, fried, mixed with ginger, shallots,
> balacan,tamarind (&salt &sugar)and sauteed with onions.
> I see the potential for the use of these salt packed ziganids as a
> substitution for the dried anchovies. They're about the same size...


Oh, ok! Malaysian. I was thinking it was something Indonesian. The
bagoong padas is fermented fish in a liquid, so I'm not sure if it would be
a good substitute. Copeland Marks says you can eat ikan bilis "out of hand
with, perhaps, a glass of wine, as I do." I doubt you'd want to do that
with the bagoong. But like I said, I've never had bagoong padas; there's
lots of different kinds of bagoong.

The Philippines does have fried little fish that sound similar to ikan
bilis, but I forgot the name for them. You can get them at Goldilocks
though.

Peter