Ikan terubuk from the Siak river has been cherished for centuries as it only spawns in the brackish water of the river and consequently contributed to a booming ikan terubuk roe industry. — BAYU AMDE WINATA
Once upon a time, there was a fish called ikan terubuk. Such was its legend and legacy that it was traded for hundreds of years in the Malay Archipelago – not for its flesh, but for its eggs.
The caviar of South East Asia, terubuk roe has been a delicacy in Malaysia for hundreds of years. In fact, although it probably existed for a long time without any historical documentation, respected Indonesian researcher Bayu Amde Winata traces its importance in the trade network in the country to the founding father of Melaka – Parameswara.
“During my research, I found written records dating back to 1613 penned by Emanuel Godinho de Eredia that said that the thriving local ikan terubuk roe trade was something that Parameswara cultivated to develop the local economy in Melaka,” he says.
According to assistant professor Anthony Medrano, the National University of Singapore (NUS) Presidential Young Professor of Environmental Studies at Yale-NUS College, there are also written records of the immense popularity and importance of terubuk roe, dating back to the Portuguese invasion of Melaka.
“What makes it so special is that people didn’t really eat the flesh of the fish. The earliest written source is around the early 1500s and the observations of early Portuguese chroniclers like Tome Pires.
“Pires ran a medicine factory in Melaka and he wrote a lot and observed a lot and in his writings, he talks about terubuk eggs being a staple commodity coming out of Sumatra where it was sent to Melaka where it was consumed.
Often called the caviar of South East Asia, ikan terubuk roe was once an important trade commodity. These days, the roe is much rarer and a kilo of terubuk roe costs around RM500. — BAYU AMDE WINATA
“He also wrote about how when it was terubuk season, there would be carcasses of fish along the shores, because nobody really cared about the fish – they only wanted the eggs.
“And we get these same observations from the Dutch and British writers up to the 19th century, so for centuries, people were largely just consuming terubuk eggs and trading the eggs.
“The eggs were an important article of trade and were consumed by local communities. The consensus among passing Europeans was that it was an important industry,” says Medrano.
Interestingly, the terubuk roe industry was one of the few blooming trades that survived for hundreds of years without Portuguese, Dutch or British colonisers taking advantage of it. Medrano’s hypothesis is that the fish trade was considered “smelly” and so none of the Europeans wanted anything to do with it.
What is ikan terubuk?
The particular ikan terubuk that Bayu and Medrano are referring to is the species tenualosa macrura that comes from Bengkalis island and Bukit Batu in Indonesia's Riau province and is endemic to the Siak river that provides the eggs for this important industry. This species can also be found – although rarely – in Sarawak.
It is one of five ikan terubuk species available around the world, the others being tenualosa ilisha that comes out of northern Sumatra, Bangladesh and Kuwait; tenualosa reevesii from China; tenualosa thibaudeaui that thrives in the Mekong river; and finally, the tenualosa toli from Sarawak in Malaysia.
Bayu's research shows that the thriving ikan terubuk roe dates back to Parameswara's ascent in Melaka, which is telling of how intrinsic the fish was to Malay culinary culture. — BAYU AMDE WINATA
The Sarawak toli variant is prevalent in the Borneo state and the fish roe is also prized but traditionally, it is the ikan terubuk that spawns in the Siak river that has attained a more lucrative status.
“So historically the eggs of the terubuk that came from the Siak sultanate were very much cherished. The very special thing about the Siak river terubuk is that nearly the entire length of the fish is full of fish roe. In fact, each fish can play host to up to 200,000 eggs, which is what makes it so prized.
“The fish is also endemic to this part of the world and cannot be found anywhere else. So when it swims up and down the straits of Melaka, it is not swimming with a belly full of eggs. This only happens when it is heading to Indonesia's Bengkalis straits and towards the Siak river where it spawns in the brackish water there, resulting in the unique flavour of the roe. So because the spawning only occurs there and no other body of water – it has become a very rare and quite delicate luxury,” says Medrano.
Interestingly, ikan terubuk only spawn during the months of September to November in the Siak estuary, which means demand for the roe is conventionally high as supply is limited to a few, precious months.
Bayu’s research showed that terubuk roe trade grew in importance over the centuries, even in Singapore where the roe was exported from Bengkalis island and Bukit Batu. In fact, in his 1820 book History of the Indian Archipelago, John Crawford indicated that in 1820, ikan terubuk roe cost seven cents a piece in Singapore.
Medrano says what is interesting about the ikan terubuk roe industry is that even 16th century Europeans who came to Melaka noticed how important it was but did not interfere with the local trade or consumption. — ANTHONY MEDRANO
Sadly while the terubuk roe trade continued unperturbed by development for over 450 years, the industry (specifically the terubuk that is endemic to the Siak river) was brought to its knees in the 1960s, with ikan terubuk populations fast dwindling past that point.
Medrano reasons that this has a lot to do with policies implemented by former Indonesian president Suharto, who encouraged logging, which caused massive deforestation and sedimentation run-off into the river. This was complicated by the development of pulp mills, which processed the wood and discharged sawdust into the water.
Ikan terubuk that swim in the Siak river to lay their eggs typically do so with their mouths wide open to get nutrients from the water. As a result, many of these fish ended up being choked to death and their numbers have sadly dwindled in the past 50 years or so.
In the past decade, the Indonesian government has made efforts to protect ikan terubuk (both the tenualosa macrura and tenualosa ilisha species) and revive its numbers, as the fish was on the brink of extinction. Ikan terubuk is now a protected species and there is hope that the conservation efforts will ensure an increase in the fish population over the years.
How is ikan terubok eaten?
In Malaysia, ikan terubuk roe as well as the fish itself was quite popular, especially among the Malay community and the denizens of Sarawak but as its numbers have faltered, there has been a sharp decline in both interest and consumption.
Ikan terubuk was once very popular among older generations. Cookbook author Datin Kalsom Taib recalls her father’s favourite dish was fried ikan terubuk stuffed with sambal belacan and topped with soy sauce. — JOHOR PALATE: TANJUNG PUTERI RECIPES
Renowned cookbook author Datin Kalsom Taib, author of Johor Palate: Tanjung Puteri Recipes and Malaysia’s Culinary Heritage is now in her eighties and says that the last time she ate ikan terubuk was in 2014 when she was doing the recipes for her first cookbook Johor Palate. Because one of her recipes called for ikan terubuk, she managed to hunt two fish down.
“We had to look a long time before we could find a fish to cook the dish and when we found it, it was quite a small one,” she says.
But as a child growing up in Johor, Kalsom recalls eating the fish a little more regularly as her father was a huge fan of it.
“It was my father’s favourite fish, so my mother used to make several dishes out of it. The fish is very different – it is very rich and buttery and has a slight, mild sweetness and a texture that is soft yet firm. But it has a lot of bones!
“So last time, it was easier to find ikan terubuk and we used to make ikan terubuk goreng kicap. It is basically a fish stuffed with onions, bird’s eye chillies and sambal belacan and topped with soy sauce.
“Sometimes we used to just grill the fish with salt and turmeric or the third way would be to cook it asam pedas style.
“If we could get the ikan terubuk roe, we would normally marinate it with turmeric and salt and deep-fry it. And dried salted ikan terubuk was a luxury even when I was young. As a young adult, a few pieces of roe cost RM100 and I would buy it sparingly and eat it with cut chillies, onions and lime,” says Kalsom.
Kueh grew up in Sarawak and remembers her father cooking ikan terubuk for family meals, as it used to be quite widely available. — ADELINE KUEH
For Adeline Kueh, a senior lecturer in fine arts at the LaSalle College of the Arts in Singapore, growing up in Sarawak meant she had access to ikan terubuk quite a bit as a child.
“My dad Anthony Kueh loves ikan terubuk and he was the cook in our family and took care of our meals. When we were younger, we got a lot of fish because we had family members who lived in a fishing village, so they gave us ikan terubuk but my dad could also find it in the markets in Sarawak.
“The fish has such a rich umami taste and is very creamy but it is full of bones! So navigating the bones can be quite tricky, which is why only my father and I enjoyed eating the fish.
“If he was cooking it, he would wait for me to come back because between the two of us, we could polish the whole dish off!” says Kueh.
In Kueh’s family, the fish is typically steamed Teochew-style. Anthony also learnt how to make a Dayak-style ikan terubuk dish from his neighbour, which basically incorporated tapai and eggplant. If he could find terubuk roe, he would deep-fry it or buy salted fish roe from the market.
“My dad is 83 now and he still lives in Sarawak and I was talking to him about ikan terubuk and he was saying how it is much harder to find. And he was like ‘Where to find nice terubuk now?’” says Adeline, laughing.
Adeline’s father Anthony (pictured here) loves ikan terubuk and learnt how to make a Dayak style recipe that incorporates the fish with tapai. — ADELINE KUEH
In Sarawak, ikan terubuk typically retails for between RM50 to RM80 per fish (this applies to Sarawak toli; imported variants are cheaper) while fish roe can go for RM500 per kilo.
Bayu meanwhile says that in Indonesia – specifically the Bengkalis island and Bukit Batu, the island inhabitants typically used to process the ikan terubuk roe into salted fish roe. Traditionally, salting the roe was the best way of preserving it and extending shelf life.
According to Bayu, in Indonesia, Siak river terubuk eggs are now largely available only in the black market – priced at upwards of RM500 a kilo.
Like so many things in life, change is a constant but it is certainly sad to know that indigenous terubuk roe – once so prized that even Parameswara championed it – has since become a rare commodity.
In fact, since the trade of the eggs has declined considerably, younger generations likely haven’t been able to taste it or afford it, which means the long-standing predilection for the roe might perish entirely.
Conversely, there is the hope that ikan terubuk roe’s rarity will ensure that it remains treasured in the region – much like caviar is in the West.
“It is a luxury food – really the caviar of this part of the world,” agrees Bayu.
