SARAWAK

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Agi Idup Agi Ngelaban!

1. Kolo Mee

Photo: Kuching Kolo Mee: The Famous Noodle Dish from Sarawak | the Ambitious Salted Fish, 2022

Kolo mee or Mi Kolok is a dry cooked noodle. The name 'kolo' was derived from the Cantonese dialect which directly translates to 'dry cooked noodle'. According to a history researcher, Chai Kit Siang, it was introduced by a Hakka businessman around the year 1920. It gain huge popularity and locals try to recreate it. From there, it got the name Kolo Mee.

This savory and springy noodle with chewy topping is usually served in three ways; with light soy sauce, red char siew or just plain. The noodle will firstly be boiled in hot water and then dried. The dried noodle will then be tossed in savory shallot oil and soy sauce mixture, and then added with various garnishes. The original dish was served with non-halal food (char siew and lard), fortunately now there are Muslim friendly recipe available. Down here, you can see few variation of Muslim friendly Kolo Mee.

Chicken Kolo Mee Seafood Kolo Mee

Photo Credit: chicken kolo mee : Taste of Borneo seafood kolo mee : GHAZALI, D. (2021, March 22). Local Food Tales: Kolo Mee - Home Away From Home - Espoletta.

If you wish to try it yourself at home, here is the link of a YouTube video tutorial that will fulfill your wish! It is Muslim friendly and beginner friendly, Happy cooking!

2. Manok Pansoh

Photo credit: Kuching Wants to Be Listed as UNESCO’s 'Creative City Of ..., n.d https://images.app.goo.gl/UeFE4HYKrHoMvXhw6

Manok Pansoh (sometimes called Manuk Pansuh) is a famous and iconic dish amongst Dayak especially during their end-of-harvest-season festival, Gawai Dayak Celebration. This special dish is also famous for its cooking method which is using Bamboo stalk. The origin of this golden recipe is unknown but it is said that the lack of kitchen utensils force the people to use bamboo as the cooking pot.

There are many variation of this dish and modernized cooking method nowadays but nothing beats the authentic taste of the old school recipe and cooking method. The foundation of this dish is the Chicken. Free range chicken (ayam kampung) is a much better option for this certain recipe. The chicken meat and aromatics such as onions, ginger, lemongrass, garlic, torch grass flower and galangal are stuffed indside a bamboo stalk. The opening of the bamboo is then sealed with tapioca leaves. The bamboo is the placed over an open wood fire, the same way with how 'Lemang' is cooked.

Manok Pansoh is cooked neither with the addition of water nor oil. The flavourous soup come from the chicken's natural juice blends with other ingredients. This creates a flavorful soup that accompanies the cooked chicken and tapioca leaves. No matter how hard it looks and sounds like, it is worth to believe in your hand for a moment, and just try to cook this delightful dish. Just follow this simple instruction in the video below.

Whenever you are scared to try something new, tell yourself; You may never know what you are capable of if you don't try!

3 . Kek Lapis Sarawak

Photo Credit: Asian taste https://www.facebook.com/172345806630048/photos/p.980894099108544/980894099108544/

Kek Lapis Sarawak or Layered Cake is one of the most unique and hard to make dessert. Kek Lapis is taken from Bahasa Melayu, which directly translates to layered cake. The reason for the name should be self explanatory. This beautiful dessert is believed to be brought by Indonesian people, specifically from Betawi. They introduced Sarawakians to lapis legit, which is the Betawi's version of layered cake. It is a localised version of the spit cake that is used to be enjoyed by the Dutch.

This cake needs a high skill of baking as it needs a very detailed method to design a beautiful and mesmerizing cake motives. The motives can vary from the simplest design which is the basic stripe motive to the hardest design which almost mimic a kaleidoscope. A cake can take about 4 to 8 hours to be baked. Firstly, the cake is cooked up in deep pans, carefully adding even stripes of colorful batter with 10 minutes in the oven between each layer. The cake baking is basically just that, but there are many variation of this recipe that reassemble the cooled cake with condensed milk and plays with different flavors such as Oreo and Cadbury. These kind of cake needs more attention and detail to achieve desired product.

As how hard the making of this cake is explained, people will just chose to buy it at the bakery. But for those who are up for the challenge and want to explore more on this dessert, I gladly recommend you to try this recipe below in the video. Remember, no one is perfect, and even babies have to fall many times before they can walk properly. Never give up and keep on trying, who knows you may be the next Kek Lapis Sarawak dessert master!

Resource and references

Kolo Mee Edward, C. (2021, February 6). Kolo Mee , history and what’s the secret. SharonSarawakSpecial. https://www.sharonsarawakspecial.com/post/kolo-mee-history-and-what-s-the-secret

GHAZALI, D. (2021, March 22). Local Food Tales: Kolo Mee - Home Away From Home - Espoletta. Espoletta. https://espoletta.com/2021/03/22/local-food-tales-kolo-mee-home-away-from-home/

Tawie, P. (2020, March 13). The noodle that unites us all. New Sarawak Tribune. https://www.newsarawaktribune.com.my/the-noodle-that-unites-us-all/

Manok Pansoh Jungle Flavour: Manok Pansoh. (2020, July 20). BorneoTalk. https://www.borneotalk.com/jungle-flavour-manok-pansoh/

Manok Pansoh: An Ethnic Bamboo Chicken Dish from Sarawak | The Ambitious Salted Fish. (2021, December 3). https://ikanmas.in/malaysian-food/ayam-pansuh-manok-pansoh/

Kek Lapis Sarawak

Chong, S. (2020, August 10). The Mesmerizing Geometry of Malaysia’s Most Complex Cakes. Atlas Obscura. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/kek-lapis-sarawak

Malaysian Cakes Called “Kek Lapis Sarawak” Look Like Kaleidoscopes. (n.d.). Mymodernmet.com. https://mymodernmet.com/kek-lapis-sarawak/