Thursday, December 2, 2010

A Wriggly Snack

Years ago, the Satok Weekend Market was the sale centre for wild birds/animals and local wild game meat like wild boar, bats, etc were available. Nowadays, it is a much tamer affair and the wildest meat may be that of the local kampung chicken! :-)

Still, that does not means that one of Sarawak's best known local delicacy is not available. It is but is seasonal. Yup, it is our very own local bite-sized wriggly snack .....



The sago worm is the larva of the Sago Palm Weevil or Red Palm Weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus). To "farm" these worms, the locals cut down the sago palm and leave it in a wet water-logged area. Presumably, the sago palm weevils will deposit eggs inside these rotting sago trunk and the developing larvae grow fat inside the trunk.


Here, these worms are eaten as a snack - raw or fried like pieces of crinkled chips  though with very with crunchy heads :-) 

To fry them, just wash the worms and rinse with water a couple of times. Pat them dry and then throw them into a hot pan - add some oil and fried them. Then use the spatula to flatten them ....[squissssh].

 

Once brown, they are ready to eat :-) - our very own high protein crinkly chips!

 

Enjoy!

3 comments:

  1. Did you cook it and eat it?

    They are like the aboriginal's witchery grubs. It is claimed that they taste like chicken meat (roasted). I wouldn't touch it.

    Sui Tin

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  2. Indeed, they are like the witchetty grubs - I had them when I was in Australia.

    Want to try some when you get here?

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  3. I am not sure, as I just don't like wriggly crawly creatures. My whole being gets tinglely when I even think of one.

    Sui Tin

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