Some Delicacies and Jungle Produce from Sarawak (Borneo), Malaysia

Now is fruit seasons in Sarawak and how I wish that I could eat all of these. I got these pictures from a close friend Dorothy Schroeder, she and her husband went for a holiday in Malaysia for the month of October 2008. So I decided to put them on my blog here.

When I was little girl I used to follow my parents or some folks at the village to collect the jungle fruits. How I missed all those. Below are some of the local fruits and foods that are available in my beloved land "The Land of the Hornbill" - Sarawak.

Wild Jack Fruit (Buah Nangka).

These are taste better than the Jack fruit. I think I like it better than Jack fruit. When I was little I used to follow my parents to go collect this wild fruit from the jungle. The fruit is smaller than Jack fruit. The seeds can be boiled and eat it. Very nice.

some more fruits.. hehehe.


Buah Tarap.

This is another kind of fruit that I like very much. It taste sweeter. Now my mouth drool...hehehe thinking about it.

Tarap is a tall tropical tree which is native to Southeastern Asia. It has large lobed leaves, and edible fruits which can weight up to a few pounds. The fruit of tarap is edible, oblong, about 12 in (20 cm) long, and can weight a few pounds. Its skin is covered with soft spines, and has an appearance to the jackfruit. Generally, the pulp can be eaten fresh and has a good aroma. Its seeds can also be eaten when roasted. It is reported that young fruits are sometimes eaten as a dish.

Durian (Stinky fruit).
Duri in Malay means thorn. So the durian derives from the word "duri".

It has unpleasant stench, however it's famous among the local in Malaysia. I think it's delicacies of the South East Asian countries. Foreigners from Europe, Australia and America doesn't like the smell. When we were kids at the village, we used to go wait for the durian to fall from the tree and we will race to get the fruit. So whoever fastest will get it... hehehe. but we divide it after that. Be aware that never stay under the durian tree when waiting for the fruit or else it will drop on you.. that's dangerous.

Wild Mangoes. (Buah Bambangan)

We called it buah alim in our native dialect of Kenyah. The inside is exactly the same as Mangoe's fruit. The skin is thicker than real mango and always has the same colour as above. Unlike real mango it will turn yellow when it's ripe.

Buah Kepayang

A kind of nut grown in Sarawak. I like this. The fruit is big and oval and has light brown skin as pictured below. Each fruit have about 20-30 nut shells inside it. When the fruit riped from the trees, we let the fruit rotten and we only collect the nuts. The nuts need to be boil and open to extract the nuts from it. As the nuts are poisonous, it needs to be soaked in water for few days and the water need to be changed every day under running water. The old method in the village, our parents used to put the nuts in a kind of basket and tie it safely and hang it at the end of boat in the river. After few days i.e. 2 days they will get it. Then it's safe to eat. We pound the nuts and wrap in a leave and bake it on the top of fire... hehehe.. (it's complicated to tell here). You can slice it thinly and fry it with some pork meat or anchovies.. and chillies... em... yummy.

Another Nuts..... which one of my favourite. Below is how the fruit look like.

The Kenyah people called this "Mali". When it's ripe it turned pink (as seen above). When it's not ripe, don't ever try it coz it will coz your lips get itchy and you might get sore lips.

Coconut water... to cool you down on a Hot day.

Rambutan (red) and Langsat (yellow)

Some ferns, bananas, Lemon grasses

Jungle produce (local veges of the natives of Sarawak (Daun Sabung, Ferns etc.)

More jungle produce : Water spinach, Cassava leaves and some ferns. All organic, no fertilizer

Native Market (Tamu) in Miri.

Some local foods sold at the market.

Tamu at Pujut. Varieties of fruits, vegetables sold.

Buah Rambutan and limes.

More local produce sold at native market.

Oranges

Special (ABC)

Chendol

Rojak

Variety of Donuts

"Lemang".
Glutinous Rice cooked in the Bamboo (see below). The rice first of all soaked few hours and then drain. Thereafter you add some salt and coconut milk together. Cook above hot burning fire or charcoal.

Satay

Some delicious foods served in the Restaurant.. hehehe... during my friend's husband birthday.

Look so yummy

Cassava Leaves

I know many would be surprised to know that young cassava leaves can be eaten. Young leaves are edible but provided that you need to cook it first. The Malays and natives of Sarawak love to eat this as one of their dish. There are many ways to cook it. Some like to cook it with coconut milk, some boil the leaves for 2-3 minutes and eat it as "Ulam" with the "sambal belachan" (shrimp paste with chillies). A traditional way to cook it, is to pound the leaves and fry it with some meat or just cook it with meat as soup.

This is me, picking the young cassava (tapioca) leaves from my mom's garden, when I went back to my hometown in June 2006.

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A friend gave me a stem of the Cassava plant which I planted in my garden.

This is my tapioca plant that I planted among my flowers which survived the winter. It never grow taller as I always took the leaves. I have cut some of the stems and planted during the summer but it didn't grow. Guess the weather was too hot.

Just few stems of young leaves is enough for my dish.

Below are the ingredient that I cooked with the pounded cassava leaves, it's a common way to cook it traditionally by the native of Sarawak (Malaysia) such as the Kenyah and Kayan people.

You need some ginger, onions or garlic (I like to pound the ginger and chopped onions finely. Fry or saute in olive oils till brown.

Then add your favorite meat i.e. chicken or pork.  Fry till it is lightly brown, then add the pounded cassava leaves. 

This is how it looks like. I know not many want to eat this way. But this is our favourite. Continue to simmer it on medium heat. Don't put too much meat (as I did) or the taste will overpower the cassava leaves.

Then add some of the natural herbs to substitute for MSG. A type of plant, which we called "bekai" in Kenyah dialect and it grow wild in the Tropical Borneo jungle. We picked the leaves and dried it and pounded finely as shown above. Add salt to your taste.

Do not forget to add a little bit water or some chicken broth. Nice to eat with white rice.

!!!!Happy Eating!!!!
Yum yum... :)

My Vegetables Garden

Gardening is one of my hobby and it takes a lot of patience and tendering. I have to learn alot of tips from some of gardening book or search it from the internet about how to grow or take care some of the flowers or vegetables etc. When I first did my gardening a year ago, I thought doing gardening was very easy here but it is not. The weather here in Houston, Texas is not the same as in my home country (Sarawak - Malaysia). You have to know when is best time to plant and which plants / vegetables can be grown here.

Whether you are new to gardening or a seasoned gardening pro, it is better to read some "Garden Guides" from the books or from the website. Just google whatever you want to know, you can find some very useful information and tips. By reading or getting information, it will certainly provide us a lot of help that we must know about gardening i.e. on plants, pests, gardening tips; techniques, nurseries; landscaping, and much more. I have problem with pest such as the vine borer in my garden especially the zucchinis and squashs. I still have to deal with it. It can be very frustrated seeing the plants dies eaten up by them. Other bugs may be I can deal with that.

I have a small vegetable garden at the backyard and flower beds on the front yard. I grow a few of each kind at my garden i.e. Zucchini, Tomatoes, Eggplants, corn, sweet banana peppers and some other vegetables. Here are some of the vegetables that I grow.

Some corn with some of "Sarawak Native Mustard" (ensabi).

Some zucchini and tomatoes plant.

Looks so fertile. Mixed soil with miracle gro.

My zucchinis all flowering, start to bear fruit.

Zucchini start to bear fruit. But I have problem with it here, the birds like to eat it.

An unusual squash. May be twin. :)

I took the picture the next day, I took the previous one. I don't think it will survive.

Food and Eating Time!!!!

Janet, Floria & Lina

Mag, Janet & Floria

Mag, Janet and Lina (Ready to eat).

This is what we do when we meet our friends or own people in another country. We would get together and cook or share the food that we have not eaten here. This happens once in a while. We missed all the good food we have at home in Sarawak. We chat and laugh and enjoy ourselves with our food. So feels like we are at home when we eat all the food here. Take a look at those food that we cooked and ate together.

Frozen Grounded Cassava Leaves.
I bought it from My Hua Stores (Vietnamese store), it was from the Philippines. Didn't know that they sold this at the stores.

I bought 2 packets.

This is how it looks like after we cook it.

These are Sarawakian Mustard (ensabi - Iban called it) that I grows at my garden at the backyard. I picked it this morning to cook for us.

Stir fry with onions, garlic and anchovies.

Stir fry zucchini leaves and pumpkin leaves. We experiment this as we have never done that before and it was really delicious. I grow few zucchinis at my garden.


Pork Ribs. Marinate it with All Seasons Salt. Then saute onions, garlic and ginger with olive oil in a big skillet, then add the pork ribs. Cook it for about 20 minutes and put 2 or 3 tablespoons of cooking wine. Stir it regularly. Then.. continue cooking for another 20 minutes. Add some thinly sliced Jalapeños (Green Peppers) and stir it. Reduce heat and cooking till tender.

Baked drumstick by Lina.

These are the dishes we cook. Not bad hah. Too much to eat actually.