The upper shell or back meat of a turtle, considered a delicacy in historical cuisine.
Possibly from Malay or Portuguese colonial terminology related to turtles. The exact origin is uncertain, but it reflects European colonial contact with tropical cuisine and wildlife.
Calipash was such an expensive luxury food in the 1700s-1800s that it appears constantly in cookbooks and menus as a status symbol—eating turtle shell meat was basically the caviar of that era.
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