| Bombay duck | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Aulopiformes |
| Family: | Synodontidae |
| Genus: | Harpadon |
| Species: | H. nehereus |
| Binomial name | |
| Harpadon nehereus (Hamilton, 1822) |
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The Bombay duck or bummalo (Harpadon nehereus, Bengali: bamaloh or loita, Gujarati: bumla, Marathi: bombil) is, despite its name, not a duck but a lizardfish. It is native to the waters between Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and Kutch in the Arabian Sea, and a small number are also found in the Bay of Bengal. Great numbers are also caught in the South China Sea. The fish is often dried and salted before it is consumed. After drying, the odour of the fish is extremely powerful, and it is usually transported in air-tight containers.
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The origin of the term "Bombay duck" is uncertain. The shoals of fish on the Eurasian continent were separated when the Indian plate moved into it, dividing the species along the coasts of Eastern and Western India. When the rail links started on the Indian sub-continent, people from the eastern Bengal were made aware of the large availability of the locally prized fish on India's western coasts and began importing them via the railways. Since the smell of the dried fish was overpowering, its transportation was later consigned to the 'Mail' Train. The mail train __ the Bombay Mail or the Bombay Dak __ thus reeked of the fish smell and 'You smell like the Bombay Duck', was a common term in use in the days of the British Raj. In Bombay, the local english speakers then called it so, but it was eventually corrupted into "Bombay duck". Although the likelihood of this origin is questionable, it does have the authority of a BBC Radio 4 interview in August 2006.
According to local Bangladeshi stories, the term Bombay duck was first coined by Robert Clive, after he tasted a piece during his conquest of Bengal. It is said that he associated the pungent smell with that of the newspapers and mail which would come in to the cantonments from Bombay. The term was later popularised amongst the British public by its appearance in Indian restaurants across the country.
In 1997, Bombay Duck was banned by the European Commission (EC) of the European Union. The EC admitted that it had no "sanitary" evidence against the product and the UK Public Health Laboratory Service confirmed that there are no recorded cases of food poisoning, or bacterial contamination, associated with Bombay Duck. It was banned because the EC only allows fish imports from India from approved freezing and canning factories. Bombay Duck is not produced in factories.
According to "The Save Bombay Duck campaign",[1] the Indian High Commission approached the European Commission about the ban. The EC adjusted the regulations so that the fish can still be dried in the open air but has to be packed in an "EC approved" packing station. Now a Birmingham wholesale merchant has found a packing source in Mumbai/Bombay and the product is again available.
The BBC notes that consumption in the United Kingdom prior to the ban was over 13 tonnes per year.
Bombay Duck is available fresh in Canada in cities with large Indian populations, such as Toronto and Montreal and is generally known as bumla. Although mainly popular with Indians from southern Gujarat, coastal Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka, it is increasingly consumed by the other South Asian populations.
The fish meat does not have a distinctive taste of its own, which is why it is fried golden yellow and preferred to be eaten as a starter item.