I don’t know what these are called…
My mum said that they called it popot or something like that but I googled that and found it to be the name of some fish. I reckon it is something like what the Malays would call pepes ikan and I was wondering if it was anything like the satar that Merryn encountered on her recent trip to Trengganu. After all, my sister’s colleague who made these and gave some to her actually came from the east coast of the peninsula.
She said that she made it with mashed fish meat and heart, nothing else. Heart? Gee! I did not know that fish had hearts so I googled that and found that they actually do…and the usual ones that people eat would be those of a shark (ikan yu) or stingray (ikan pari). However, I am quite positive that she added some other things to enhance the taste before wrapping it all in these leaves…
…and baking them in the oven or grilling them over an open fire.
I tried a little bit of it…
…and I found it to be very tasty – not something that would get me jumping up and down in delight but I did think it had a taste and fragrance similar to that of salai ikan (smoked fish) and I’ve always enjoyed eating that. My mum loved it a lot and it certainly helped improve her appetite as she enjoyed eating that with sagu’ (toasted sago pellets) and rice.
Personally, I would much sooner head back to this place for their own version of the otak-otak…
*recycled pic*
…and I’m sure those who have tried it before would agree with me, no second thoughts about it…
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 