Assyrian cuisine tomato sauce and baked in the oven, not unlike the Levantine version of moussaka), "shamakhshi" (fried rolled eggplant stuffed with ground beef in tomato sauce), "Dolma" (rice and tomato sauce stuffed in grape leaves, cabbage, various peppers, zucchini, and eggplant), "Masgouf" (fish spiced with olive oil, salt, and turmeric, topped with tomatoes, potatoes, and onions then oven-baked) and "Lahmacun" (flatbread topped with ground beef, tomato paste, spices, and onions). Sesame seeds are important to the cuisine and used to make tahini, there is even an Assyrian folk tale about the gods drinking sesame wine on the night before they created
Shrimp paste Language" published in 1812. Belacan is used as an ingredient in many dishes. A common preparation is "sambal belacan", made by mixing toasted belacan with chilli peppers, minced garlic, shallot paste and sugar and then fried. Sometimes it is toasted to bring out the flavour, usually creating a strong, distinctive odor. Terasi (trassi in Dutch), an Indonesian (especially Javanese) variant of dried shrimp paste, is usually purchased in dark blocks, but is also sometimes sold ground as granulated coarse powder. The color and aroma of terasi varies depending on which village produced it. The color ranges from a soft purple-reddish