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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Orang Ulu Cuisine in Miri

Two West Malaysian friends sat down for lunch at Summit Coffee Shop in Centrepoint Miri to a First Meal of Orang Ulu Food recently.

It was a nice occasion to break their taste buds in. After the sumptuous meal they were not disappointed and asked to be brought back again for the truly organic food and ingredients from the jungle!! (I left out the photo of the belacan and chili paste)
The shop is famous for the three layered tea (a too sweet but addictive concoction of gula apong at the bottom with condensed milk in the middle and very frothy evaporated milk at the top)

Leaf wrapped soft rice.

A dish of stir fried wild ginger flower.

This is stir fried meeding with fresh wild and soft tree fungi.

Another dish of wild ginger flowers with chicken.

This is minced tapioca leaves cooked with young shoots of the wild ginger plant.

This is pineapple cooked with small intestines and not for the faint hearted. But is nothing on the screen of Extreme Food!! Rebranded this is a dish for exotic Londoners!

This is a delicious dish of oil palm shoot cooked with pounded chillies and some belachan paste with bits of chicken.

This is a group of Maths and Science experts. For Miss Wong and Miss Teo all these dishes including the tea were Firsts for them. Mr. Gan having lived in Sarawak since 1987 and recently transferred to Kelantan this cuisine is top of the list amongst his favourite.



And all good things must come to an end and so did our exciting and exotic meal along the five foot way (the coffee shop itself cannot seat all the noon time diners). The shop is not on the busy road and therefore diners would not have to breathe in extra lead. It is a good choice for a quiet and easy meal. All these dishes are part of the Economy Food displayed on the warming shelf. So you can pick and choose from the trays.

You point and you get the dishes that look good to you. You can always ask for one portion to start with.

But you can be assured....most of the dishes are nice.

24 memories:

Superman said...

The food look so nice. Yummy.

ceriseland said...

your food can look even yummier if they're all in focus...
show me more of malaysian food!!!!

I Am Sarawakiana said...

Superman
I am sure you do not get food like these in Sibu. They are to certain people acquired taste. (like blue cheese).
If you come to Miri - look for Summit near HSBC.

I Am Sarawakiana said...

Thanks Cherry for visiting. It was a hot afternoon and I did not want to be too conspicuous...the sweaty hands and the eyes made everything out of focus. We were laughing a lot too.
May be next time I should be more serious and take good food shots. Sure - more Malaysian food coming up.
So you are welcome to visit.

chung said...

Just came back from a short lunch break but Centre Point is too far for me. May be I will give it a try with my expat friends when we have a holiday. I have eaten the leaf wrapped rice with sambal and wild boar soup before. What a big packet!!

RWP said...

yes org ulu meal! my tradition meal back home. i miss miri so much as i read this entry of your.

exactly, chung, u meantion leaf wrapped rice with sambal and wild boar soup arghhhh making me hungry again at this hour.

tips to sarawakiana, the images r blur because 1] maybe your lens gets too close to the subject; and 2] the camera isnt ready to focus and u snapped it. try manual mode if you can.

Robert Rizal Abdullah said...

Chang Yi,

Wild ginger flowers/shoots. It is new to me. Have never tried it. If I have the opportunity, I may give it a try - just to find out the taste.

I Am Sarawakiana said...

Chung - for those who are not used to orang ulu food the leaves used are called Daun Long. All the orang ulu and the Ibans use these leaves because organically they give a special flavour to the food wrapped in them! See we all must be environmentally friendly like our ancestors!

Wild boar soup is just about the best food in the world....geram only now that the forests are all gone and WB cannot hidup/berternak......

I Am Sarawakiana said...

Thanks for your tips. I realised that I made many mistakes...that day I only had one right eye to use...because I had problem with my left eye...now how's that for excuse...I promise I will go back to Summit to do the food some more justice!!
Or find some extra cash to buy a better camera!!!

I Am Sarawakiana said...

RM How nice of you to visit...

The wild ginger is my term for Kechalak or bunga kentang...I am sure you have it in your backyard.

the inner stem is really nice with daun ubi... I plant wild ginger as my fencing at the back of the house...So I do not have to pay a hefty sum for the flowers and stems.

You can try cooking the stems with sweet potato leaves too and some dried chilies.

bliss said...

Miri has a lot to offer if we care to look around. :) :)

I Am Sarawakiana said...

Hello Bliss
Thanks for visiting. Yes at one time the Lelapan took Miri by storm and then the cafe started three more branches to kow tim the demand......now fish is so expensive!
Presentation is important too.

Unknown said...

I think this is a nice article about orang ulu cuisine and so many different dishes.
there should one day be a cooking competition for special jungle products.

Unknown said...

I have neighbours who are mixed Kenyah and Iban. When they have special food I get to taste them ! I have learned to use some of their vegetables and I really like them. This is the beauty of living in Miri. My favourite is lemang with a good thick curry for special days.

Mumble jumble said...

I really really want to go home now. My attempt at west malaysian wild boar meat cooking(used bunga kantang and serai in the soup) didn't taste much like what we get at home. A friend said, the wild boar tasted like normal pork, Even after she and I had a hard time tweezing and pulling off the fur! So much for my attempt to convince a west malaysian chinese that wild boar is an exotic cuisine. hehe.

The palm shoot looks delicious. Meeding too! I was told by a Sarawakian here in KL we can find Meeding along the highway to Putrajaya but its of a different species. The red sort. It has a more sticky sap compared to the meeding in sarawak.

Is there an Iban restaurant in miri? I just realised i've never come across one when i'm in miri.

I Am Sarawakiana said...

Free Bird -You have to "burn" the hair off the skin - but normally we don't eat the skin.
And you must par boil the meat before cooking to get rid of the smell of the blood . Some times I even fry the meat for a little while and then wash the meat. In this way the meat is sweet and it looses the strong smell.
There is no Iban restaurant in Miri.

I Am Sarawakiana said...

Kamaliah - thanks for visiting.
I wish too that there is an indigenous cooking competition. And that will add to the flavours and sights of beautiful Miri.

I Am Sarawakiana said...

Ngoh - you are indeed blessed to have Kenyah and Iban neighbours who are so kind ! Good bamboos and the correct way of burning the bamboo brings out the best lemang.
It is a great kung fu to cooking with bamboo.
Hope you will like my new posting on wild ginger and fish soup.

Reflective Thinker said...

Hey, I didn't realise Mr Gan had a special visit to Miri. I guess you had a lot of catching up to do then.

Reflective Thinker said...

Oops! There was a typo in my earlier comment. It should be: I didn't realise Mr Gan made a special visit to Miri.

Reflective Thinker said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
I Am Sarawakiana said...

Hi How are you?
Yes our friend had a special Maths and Science workshop along with Misses T and W.
Not much time to catch up as he was really busy but I played tourist guide to the ladies.

Thanks for your visit. GBU.

Whatever said...

Hi! I came across your blog while searching about Miri in Google. I must say, the moment I saw this post, I went off with hubby to find this Summit coffeeshop. I thought it was around the Sun City food court area, but we couldn't find it. Went to read the comments to this post, ahhh so it's near HSBC. Will try the food soon.

I Am Sarawakiana said...

Dear Garnet
Nice of you to write in. And you must really try their food.

It is indeed nearer HSBC but it is back lane and a good landmark is the Great Eastern Insurance Building.

Enjoy the Indigenous cuisine!

 

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