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Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Making the mouth-watering belacan

Making the mouth-watering belacan
If no one ever told you about it, you might not be aware a tiny fishing village like Bagan Parit Baru could be a place that produces belacan.
Belacan is an all-time favourite condiment for Malaysian gluttons, especially among the Malays.
The village chief Kee told Sin Chew Daily other than 90% of the villagers share the same family name with him, most of the fishermen here go out to the sea not for the fish by the shrimps, an ingredient for belacan.
A Kee family started to run a belacan in the village some 30 years ago, using the large machines to blend the shrimp paste and then packing the semi-processed product in wooden crates for delivery to factories for further processing.
Thanks to the population outflow, the number of sampans used to catch the shrimps has dwindled to just a couple today from more than a dozen during the heyday of shrimp fishing here.
Meanwhile, the two family-run belacan manufacturing plants here today are operating in a way quite different from those years, cutting the belacan into smaller pieces of either 250g or 500g each) with small machines or manually.
Sin Chew Daily decided to take a glimpse into the steps for making the mouth-watering belacan.
Walking down the endless and dilapidated wooden bridges spanning the village, we came to the compound of a silted wooden house with red coloured brick-like objects laid on the floor outside the house for drying.
A closer look revealed the not so evenly cut belacan.
The second generation residents of Bagan Parit Baru, another Kee couple said they inherited the belacan making business from the father for more than a decade now.
57-year-old Mrs Kee told Sin Chew Daily the Malays prefer belacan of dark red colour and consequently they would add some edible colourings into the product to make it visually more presentable.
However, Chinese customers or local villagers would prefer belacan without additives.
She said it isn't too difficult to make belacan. The freshly caught shrimps will be mixed with fine salt to preserve the taste and the mixture will then be left alone for natural fermentation without the addition of any flavourings.
The village chief Kee later brought us to the two Chinese temples in the village, the bigger one built in 1969.
The two seafood restaurants here have been a hit among tourists who have come from places as far away as Kuala Lumpur and gluttons as near as Bagan Parit Empat just across Sungai Bernam in Perak.
- Sin Chew Daily

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