The dish so powerful it deserves an entire post of its own.
Apparently, it has origins in Hakka cuisine but has become quite uniquely Sarawakian. It essentially consists chicken that is cooked with LOTS of ginger, a special kacang ma herb and other seasoning. There is no water added, instead it is made up with langkau - that is, rice wine that has been distilled to 50% alcohol by volume. The mixture is then boiled down to produce a powerful, concentrated soup. Kibik, one of the village women said that the recipe involves dry frying the ginger - as their ancestors would have done when cooking oil was not available in the kampung.
We were all excited to try the dish that they had specially prepared for dinner. I braved myself to a spoonful of the powerful stuff together with some white rice. It had a strong, pungent smell of herb and ginger, tasting alcoholic and somewhat bitter while the meat was tender and salty. Over all, it had a very wholesome flavour and left ones throat and nose burning. I found myself enjoying it very much, and helped myself to more.
A few minutes later, I was unwittingly faced with the consequences - I turned flushed, hot and began to sweat. Daveency too was overcome with the heat to the point of sweat wetting his t-shirt through. I had to go outside to cool down.
It's real dangerous stuff, but I would definitely have it again.
Apparently, it has origins in Hakka cuisine but has become quite uniquely Sarawakian. It essentially consists chicken that is cooked with LOTS of ginger, a special kacang ma herb and other seasoning. There is no water added, instead it is made up with langkau - that is, rice wine that has been distilled to 50% alcohol by volume. The mixture is then boiled down to produce a powerful, concentrated soup. Kibik, one of the village women said that the recipe involves dry frying the ginger - as their ancestors would have done when cooking oil was not available in the kampung.
We were all excited to try the dish that they had specially prepared for dinner. I braved myself to a spoonful of the powerful stuff together with some white rice. It had a strong, pungent smell of herb and ginger, tasting alcoholic and somewhat bitter while the meat was tender and salty. Over all, it had a very wholesome flavour and left ones throat and nose burning. I found myself enjoying it very much, and helped myself to more.
A few minutes later, I was unwittingly faced with the consequences - I turned flushed, hot and began to sweat. Daveency too was overcome with the heat to the point of sweat wetting his t-shirt through. I had to go outside to cool down.
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| Trying to take a picture while uncomfortably hot |
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