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.

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

> 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.

DC.




Peter Dy > wrote in message
m...
>
> "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
>
>