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| Swees Epok Epok in Batam |
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| Santiago gate was all that is left of the Formosa fort which Afonso de Albuquerque built. Image credit: Wikipedia |
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| Image credit: Wikipedia |
These baked or fried wheat flour dough pockets filled with meat and vegetable were staples in Iberia i.e. Portugal and Spain. The idea came from the Middle East and the dish (a form of the Persian sanbosag ุณูุจูุณุงฺฏ ) came to Iberia through Morocco.
From the Middle East, the Persian sanbosag went west to be the Iberian empanada and to the east it went to India to become the samosa.
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| Dutch style town square in Malacca. Image credit: Wikipedia |
The Portuguese gone but one of their legacies, the empanada survived Dutch rule, probably in the form of epok epok - a fried thin crust pocket filled with meat and/ or vegetable.
(As far as I know, the Dutch don't have an empanada type dish.)
In 1824, the English cut a deal with the Dutch for control of Malacca in exchange for Bencoolen (today's Bengkulu in Sumatra, Indonesia). Malacca then became part of the Straits Settlements together with Penang and Singapore.
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| Cornish pastry. Image credit: Wikipedia |
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| Puff pastry. Image credit: Wikipedia |
Then, things got even hazier as there are no written records. An unknown, unsung hero put curried meat and potato inside puff pastry and created the proto-curry puff.
The curry puff is like the reunion in British Malaya of the the long lost Persian sanbosag siblings - the Indian samosa and Iberian empanada with English puff pastry.
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| Salahuddin Bakery in Johor Bahru |
I said proto- because since then, there are countless variations on the crust as well as the curried fillings.
Love this recipe ๐
The names also got mixed up in the melting pot, literally. The term curry puff is used to refer to any crust whether they are puff pastries or not. The term epok epok is referred to as the "Malay curry puff" or even "the Malay word for curry puff".
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| Er Jie Curry Puff |
But as KF Seetoh, founder of Makansutra once famously told Anthony Bourdain, "Got good food, you want to talk so much for what?" ๐
Just whack lah ๐๐
Date: 29 May 2020
"Got good food, you want to talk so much for what?"
ReplyDeletebecause you keep claiming everything ;)
it's disingenuous that singaporeans say why fight over food origins or why talk so much about food etc when it is singaporeans that started the claiming. if u didnt claim its origins ppl wont get triggered. so u cant go around claiming its from sg then when ppl get all fussed so u cant why talk so much abt food... cant have your cake and eat it too
Dear Anonymous, where in this article did I claim curry or epok epok originated from Singapore? Thank you
DeleteGreat article! Just a quick note: the Spanish word for bread is “pan.”
ReplyDelete