Kecap or Soya Sauce

This is, in fact, the same word as English ‘ketchup’—remember that c in Indonesian is pronounced like ch in church. I suppose retired British colonial servants brought the word back home with them from Malaya, though the Oxford English Dictionary says it originated in the Amoy dialect of Chinese. Anyway, the word has got itself so firmly attached in Britain to tomato sauce that the stuff they put on the tables in Chinese restaurants has to be labelled ‘soy sauce’ instead. At least this has the merit of reminding you that kecap is made from soya beans. Like tempe and tauco, which are also soya bean products, it is made by fermentation; the process is a long one, and although I have an Indonesian recipe for it I have never tried it and I am sure I never shall.