Came across this little article in the food section of a local newspapers
weekend magazine. Author, local food write Siu Ling Hui. Read it while
having coffee in a cafe this morning, and thought it may be of interest to
others on the list. A recipe accompanied the article, I have included it for
those interested.
< Worcestershire sauce itself is of cross-cultural
origins. In 1835, Lord Marcus Sandys, an ex-
governor of Bengal, approached chemists John
Lea and William Perrins, whose prospering
business in Broad Street, Worcester, handled
pharmaceutical's and toiletries as well as groceries.
He asked them to make up a sauce from a recipe
which he brought back from India. While
his lordship was apparently satisfied with the
results, Messrs Lea and Perrins considered it to
be an "unpalatable, red-hot fire-water" and
consigned the quantity they had made for
themselves to the cellars. During the stocktake-
cum-spring clean the following year, they came
across the barrel and decided to taste it before
discarding it. To their amazement, the mixture
had mellowed into an aromatic, piquant and
appetising liquid, They hastily purchased the
recipe from Lord Sandys and, in 1838, the
Anglo-Indian Lea & Perrins Worcestershire
sauce was launched commercially.
One of the myriad 19th-century pungent
English sauces based on oriental ingredients, it
had many imitators sporting pretentious names
such as "British Lion" and "Empress of India".
Its exact recipe remains a secret. All that is known
is that it includes vinegar, sugar, soy sauce,
molasses, tamarind, shallots, anchovies, ginger,
chilli, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom.
Lea & Perrins' product was exported
worldwide, including to the then British colony
of Malaya (as Malaysia was known before
independence), where it was incorporated by
Hainanese cooks into various dishes prepared for
their British employers.
Many of these dishes became part and parcel of
Malaysian home cooking and still feature in some
restaurants, in particular, The Coliseum Cafe in
Kuala Lumpur. This institution, once the haunt of
British plantation managers, still carries Anglo-
Hainanese classics on its virtually unchanged
menu. One such is "Chicken or Pork Chop",
comprising the relevant protein slab - crumbed or
egg-flour coated - pan fried and served with peas,
carrots and potato slices in a Worcestershire and
soy sauce-flavoured gravy carrying softened fried
onion rings. Chicken macaroni pie, an Anglo-
Hainanese dish mainly seen in Penang, is always
accompanied by Worcestershire sauce and fresh sliced
chillies.
The Nonyas (Straits Settlement Chinese) also took
up Worcestershire sauce with gusto. Some families
make their own special versions using jealously
guarded recipes handed down through generations.
Termed ang mo tau eu (literally, white person's soy
sauce) in Hokkien, it is, with sliced chillies, an
essential accompaniment for dishes such as panggang
ikan (grilled banana leaf-wrapped seasoned whole
fish), roti babi (stuffed French toast) and Inchee Kabin
(Malaysian Spiced Fried Chicken). >
