A pungent, dark, salty paste of shrimps or prawns which are salted, fermented in the sun and subsequently mashed and then dried in the sun. It is then sold in small blocks and is ubiquitous in the cooking of south east Asia. Local names throughout south east Asia and India have small variations in spelling, so it may be found masquerading as balacan, balachan, balachon, balachaun, balachaung, belacan, blacan, blachan, blachon, blachaun, blachaung, blakhan, and so on. On the other hand, it is also known independently as kapi, nga-pi, terasi and trasi. There are many other names for this extremely popular condiment, which lends a much more attractive flavour to dishes than would be imagined.
Sapodilla. A fruit which can be round or oval. Its thin skin is slightly rough and the flesh is dull, beige to terra cotta in colour and slightly granular with flat black seeds. Peel the skin away to reveal the apricot-coloured, honey-flavoured flesh. If it is eaten slightly under-ripe it may leave a residue of gum in the mouth. This can be dispelled by eating something fatty or wiping the lips with butter. One variety provides the gum for chewing gum. In Thailand they are in season from September to December.
A sour and spicy green bamboo shoot soup or stew flavoured with yanang leaves, chillis and citric acid, often with mushrooms.
A sour and spicy chicken soup or stew flavoured with yanang leaves, chillis and pickled lime, and soured with tamarind. It may have tomato and pineapple in it.
Featherback. A thin, silver fish with a marked row of dark spots running parallel to the anal fin. This is quite a bony fish but often pounded or scraped clean of the bones.
Pangasius sanitwonsei. A catfish which can grow to 3 meters length, but more usually found at just over a meter. It is less useful in cooking than many of its relations, being high in fat.
Mud fish or snakehead fish, native to India, South East Asia, China and Africa. It is believed to be able to "walk on land". In fact, it has a rudimentary lung which enables it to live out of water, but it is unable to go wandering around the neighbourhood. This helps it through the sometimes long dry seasons of India and South East Asia. It can survive in the mud when other fish have perished. They are often fished from the mud rather than from the water. They are kept in fresh water for a while to clean them before eating. This fish is reputed to have an excellent flavour and is much used in Laos, Thailand and neighbouring countries. The colour is dark green, almost black and the fish is firm and relatively boneless. The head is often used for soups.
