Eyes on Sarawak Cultural Village: Cuisine of Sarawak Cultural Village

Cuisine is a specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a place of origin. A cuisine is primarily influenced by the ingredients that are available locally or through trade.There are several ethnics in sawarak cultural village and each of the ethnics have their special cuisine.

Iban Tuak The Iban are famous for their tuak, a sweet rice wine which is served during big celebrations and festive occasions. They start dinking tuak early, even ten years old boys also drink it. When you arrive at any longhouse during the festival, the occupants will offer you tuak as a welcoming drink. It used to offend the occupants if visitors refuse the offering but now the host is more understanding as some religion like Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol of any sort. There is two types of tuak which is milky tuak that taste like sweet sake and a clear one that is taste much stronger.

clear tuak milky tuak

Lemang

Another traditional food of iban is lemang. Lemang is made of glutinous rice and coconut milk, with salt added for taste, all cooked in a hollow bamboo stick lined with banana leaves to anticipate the rice from sticking to bamboo. It usually able when Iban autumn anniversary of HARI GAWAI. It is best to eat with meat dishes such as chicken curry.

cooking process

lemang

lemang served with chicken curry Bidayuh

Bamboo chicken with Bidayuh style

Many of Sarawak’s indigenous peoples still live by the river and forest fringe, and cook over open fires using implements fashioned from nature. Hardy bamboo is an essential cooking utensil. The rice and chicken which is already marinated with salt, ginger and lemon grass are stuffed into bamboo log then directly placed over an open fire to be cooked. This way of cooking seals in the flavors and produces astonishingly tender chicken with gravy perfumed with lemongrass and bamboo.

cooking process

bamboo chicken

Tapioca leaves with pork and fermented durian

This is bidayuh style to cook tapioca leaves with pork. Lemongrass, fermented durian, shallot, garlic, tapioca young shoot and turmeric’s leaf are needed in this dish. They will squeeze tapioca shoot roughly before start cooking. After saute shallot and garlic until fragrant, tapioca shoot will be added in and stir briefly. Then pork will be cooked with those ingredients. This food is best serve while it is hot.

Melanau

Umai

A popular dish by the tribe of Melanau, this is a raw fish salad that is easy to prepare. Some Sarawakian say this is their “sushi”. In fact, umai is a traditional working lunch for the Melanau fishermen. It was an ideal recipe for the fishermen as it would have been inconvenient and dangerous to cook anything in their small boats. Umai is prepared raw from freshly caught fish, iced but not frozen. Main species used include Mackerel, Bawal Hitam and Umpirang. It is made mainly of thin slivers of raw fish, other ingredients include thinly sliced onions, chili, salt and the juice of sour fruits like lime or assam.

assam umai

umai

Tebaloi

A Melanau biscuit that is made from dried coconut mixed with sago and sugar. It tastes nice and crispy like a thicker version of kuih kapit( which in Sarawak is called kuin sepit). This is the snack for most of the melanau’s family. The mixture of the sago, coconut, sugar and egg is pour onto the banana leaf and spread evenly to get the nice thin physic of cracker. They will separate the terbaloi from the banana leaf when it is half cooked and baked it again.

tebaloi

baking process

Orang Melayu

Spicy asam fish

This is Sarawak malay’s style to cook the fish. It is same with other asam fish but the ingredient is unique. They added the apple/ tomato-lookalike vegetable which is local eggplant into the dish. This is one of the most distinct Sarawak vegetable. Eggplant is good to be added in this dish because it added a very distinct sourish taste. Its sour and slight bitter taste goes really well with the rest. They probably use Batang fish to cook this dish.

yellow eggplant

spicy asam fish

asam fish

Orang Cina

Kampua noodle

This is a traditional Foochow noodle in Sarawak. It's actually just noodles tossed with lard and sprinkled with spring onions, shallots and fried onions but it tastes delicious! It looked like the usual KO LO Mee of Kuching but the taste slightly differs. Kompua noodle generally softer than kolo mee. Authentic kampua mee has only one garnishing - the razor-thin sliced pork, not necessarily char siew (roasted pork) but rather slices of lean pork boiled and then coated with a savoury red sauce to make it look like char siew. Some of the stalls here will offer pork liver soup with a dash of red wine, which perfectly complements a good plate of kampua mee.

pork liver soup

black kampua noodle

white kampua noodle

kampua noodle with pork liver soup

Kompia

Kompia is the Foochow's version of a mini-bagel, and it's not kosher. Kompia is certainly unique to Sibu and a visit there without eating one is not forgivable! It was chosen as one of the 10 Swan Delicatessen at the closing ceremony of the Borneo Cultural Festival (BCF). This affirms its position as a favourite of the town’s folk, even though it is made of simple ingredients and is eaten every day. It was served in dark-colored herbal broth with thin slices of pork or without pork. It tastes better if it is handmade and charcoal baked. After flattened, dimpled and sprinkled liberally with sesame seeds, the buns are put into a charcoal furnace which is very similar to those found in shops making naans.

kompia with pork

kompia without pork

charcoal baked kompia cooking process

Name: Shee Jing Yee

ID: 1081102994

Responsibility: Cuisine of Sarawak Cultural Village

(i)Description on the individual ideation of the link

This link provide information about different cuisine for each of the ethnics in sarawak cultural village. This link created to provide better information about those special dishes of each ethnics.

(ii.)Objective of the link

Hope other youths to appreciate the special ethnic cuisines found in Sarawak.
To preserve and promote Sarawak’s ethnic food and culture also.
To provide overview of the relationship between Sarawak Cultural Village's different culture and its cuisine.

(iii)Design of GUI