Prawn crackers

Prawn crackers are a deep-fried snack made from starch and prawn. They are a common snack food in Southeast Asian cuisine, but they are most closely associated with Indonesia. They have also been adapted into East Asian cuisines, where the similar Japanese kappa ebisen (かっぱえびせん) and Korean saeukkang are popular snacks. According to the culinary historian Fadly Rahman, krupuk (crackers) have been around in Java since the 9th or 10th century. The Batu Pura inscription mentions krupuk rambak, which are crackers made from cow or buffalo skin, that still exist today as krupuk kulit, and are usually used in the Javanese dish krechek. Krupuk spread across the archipelago, with varying ingredients, notably fish and prawn. From Java, krupuk spread to coastal areas of Kalimantan, Sumatra, to the Malay Peninsula. The coastal peoples of Kalimantan and Sumatera later developed krupuk made of prawn and fish to make use of leftover sea products. Prawn crackers began to be adopted in foreign countries in the colonial era of the Dutch East Indies around 19th to early 20th century, and are considered as a complement to various Indonesian specialties. The idea of eating food with prawn crackers was brought by Dutch colonials to the Netherlands.

Source: Wikipedia