Food, glorious food

One bowl of Sarawak Laksa and you’ll never want another kind!

By Rachel Jacgung, Editor

Kaleidoscope-coloured cakes, bamboo-steamed chicken and the BEST BOWL OF LAKSA you’ll ever have. You can have all this and more, in Malaysian Borneo.

Food. It can make or break your experience in a destination. Sometimes a great meal is the thing you remember most about a place or is the thing you look forward to most when planning your trip.

Food is such an important part of travel because it allows us to use all five senses to really understand the culture and history of a place and its people. It brings people together and is a way to celebrate, nourish your soul or welcome somebody into your home.

We want to share with you some delicious insights into the best dishes you might not have heard of in our favourite destinations and which seasonal specialties are on offer during the low season. In this issue we explore the colourful cuisines and funky fruits that you must try while visiting Malaysian Borneo. Borneo is the world’s third largest island and is home to the Malaysian regions of Sabah in the north and Sarawak in the south. Malaysian Borneo offers a broad range of cuisine with influences from indigenous communities, China, Indonesia, India and more.

Must try dishes

Sarawak Laksa

When most of us think of Malaysian food, our minds go straight to a rich, coconut-milk laiden laksa. These, along with the many other laksa variations across Malaysia, are delicious. But the Sarawak version of a laksa is next level.

This (in our opinion) mind-blowing noodle soup is usually made with chicken, prawns and omelet slices in a spicy, tangy and sweet broth of herbs and spices – finished off with just a light touch of coconut milk. This delicious bowl of goodness is available all over Kuching as a breakfast dish and is usually served before noon.

Seafood and Hinava

The Sabah region is famous for its seafood, and there are plenty of big restaurants or cheap and cheerful market stalls to try fresh seafood cooked on a grill right after it’s hauled from the ocean along the waterfront in Kota Kinabalu.

If you’re looking for something a little different, try Hinava – a traditional dish of the Kadazan-Dusun people. Hinava is similar to a Peruvian ceviche, where lime juice is used to cure raw fish mixed with onion, salt, chilli, shallot and ginger.

Manok Pansoh

Manok Pansoh is seasoned chicken, which is stuffed into bamboo tubes, covered with tapioca leaves and cooked over hot coals to steam the chicken. Indigenous Iban and Bidayuh communities commonly make this dish, although no two recipes are ever the same! It is particularly popular during the Gawai Dayak end-of-season festival for these communities.

If you have the chance to visit a traditional Iban or Bidayuh community, you may be lucky enough to try it cooked over a fire by the river, but it’s also often available in eateries in Kuching.

Kek Lapis Sarawak (Sarawak layer cake)

These colourful layer cakes are fun and delicious and can be found in cake shops all over the city of Kuching. These cakes have a minimum of two colours of made up of thin layers and come in a mountain of different flavours. The process to cook a kek lapis is a labour of love – a thin layer of cake is spread in the pan and cooked for a few minutes, before the next layer is spread on and baked for a few minutes, and the process continues until you have a three-inch high layer cake.

Colourful Kek Lapis, Sarawak

Funky fruits in season

Dabai

Also known as a ‘Sarawak Olive’ or ‘Sibu Olive’ this little black fruit can only be found in Borneo. It has a short shelf life, so it’s rare to find them exported away from their native Sarawak. Usually eaten as a savoury snack, Dabai are prepared by soaking them in warm water for 15 minutes and eaten with something salty like soy sauce.

These savoury treats are in season in May and June.

Durian is in season from June to August

Durian

Whether you love it or hate it, you are guaranteed to smell the sickly-sweet fruit from miles away! This big, spiky fruit with custard-yellow flesh has plenty of amazing health benefits and is highly valued in south-east Asia, but is divisive due to its strong odour. If you get your hands on some, we recommend eating it straight away or you might end up with a stinky backpack – plus, most hotels and hostels don’t allow guests to bring it in the hotel because of the smell!

This polarising fruit is usually in season in Borneo from June to August.

Mangosteen

This purple skinned fruit has a hard exterior and a leafy green crown. Open one up and you’ll find segments of tangy white flesh with big seeds. These delicious fruits are high in vitamin C – and won’t stink out your fridge.

Mangosteens are usually in season between June and August.

Want to learn more about travelling to Malaysia in the low season? Visit lowseasontraveller.com/destination/malaysia