‘Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.’– American celebrity chef and author, Anthony Bourdain.
AT the breakfast table in a relative’s house on Thursday, a plate of unusual food stood out. Among the loaves of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and cups of coffee was a hot plate of freshly fried sago worms.
Sago worms, the larvae of Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, are considered a delicacy in many parts of Southeast Asia. They are a nutritious food source found in the remaining parts of a sago palm trunk after the removal of sago starch by farmers.
My elder sister Ah Moi from Bintulu had fried the dish of exotic food at my request. My niece Ah Hong, who was flying in from Singapore, had asked her to buy them. So, Ah Moi bought RM50 worth of sago worms, which were still alive on Tuesday morning, just before boarding a plane to Kuching.
According to her, a small basket containing 15 sago worms costs RM10. So at Ah Hong’s request, Ah Moi bought RM50 worth of sago worms at the local pasar tamu (native market) there. She would have bought more if there had been more available.
Ah Hong had not eaten sago worms for ages. I guess there are no sago worms for sale in Singapore. Personally, I have not come across sago worms at the jungle produce markets in Kuching for years.
Who eats sago worms in Sarawak? I guess they are an acquired taste. Remember the saying, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison”?
In my family, only my sisters and I love the creamy, oily, and slightly nutty taste of worms. We were introduced to it by our late maternal grandmother, a farmer in Kanowit.
Ages ago, when I was covering news in Mukah – a small town in Sibu Division – an elderly Melanau man attributed his thick dark hair to his regular diet of sago worms.
“They make your hair forever black,” he told me, a young, curious roving reporter working for a Brunei weekly then.
I remember during that trip to Mukah, I bought a bagful of sago worms for a Chinese friend’s elder brother for just RM8.
“It is good to drink beer with fried sago worms,” he told me.
During this year’s Kuching Food Festival, my female relative told me she paid RM4 for three sticks of barbecued sago worms.
“Nothing was added to them, yet they were very delicious,” she said.
I remember how my late maternal grandmother used to cook sago worms over a fire by skewering them on sticks and roasting them directly.
Anyway, back to the breakfast table on Thursday – I enjoyed fried sago worms with Ah Hong, Ah Moi, and my relative, Neng.
How did my elder sister cook the sago worms?
The worms were still wriggling in a plastic container filled to the brim with sago pith, which kept them alive. There were holes on the cover of the container to let air in.
The worms were thoroughly washed and cleaned before they were fried with a little oil, garlic, and soy sauce.
To eat the worms, we just put them in our mouths. The worms have hard, dark-coloured heads which are part of their chitinous exoskeletons. Some people bite off the heads to avoid the hard texture when they eat the worms.
That morning, I didn’t know how many sago worms I ate – but eating them brought back happy memories of my lovely childhood days with my late, loving maternal grandmother.
That day, we ate sago worms for breakfast. Actually, you can eat them anytime you want – for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or supper.
Besides sago worms, Ah Moi also brought with her from Bintulu some oil palm mushrooms. These edible mushrooms – another exotic food in Sarawak – are found only in oil palm plantations in the state.
We had them for dinner. After cutting them into smaller slices, my sister washed them before frying them with dried prawns and chillies.
Like the sago worms, these delicious mushrooms are also hard to find in Kuching.
If you live in smaller towns like Bintulu, Serian, Lundu, or Sibu, do you appreciate the sago worms, oil palm mushrooms, and other exotic food there?
Some people don’t. I hope you are not one of them.
We in Sarawak are so lucky. We don’t have to travel to far and exotic lands to sample and enjoy unique food like sago worms and oil palm mushrooms.
