Bamboo for cooking vessel

These bamboo culms( stem) are from a species of bamboo normally cut for use as cooking vessel.

The kind of food that is stuffed inside these young bamboo stems are like glutinous rice, chicken meat or fish. At the Bintulu tamu yesterday I saw them being sold at RM 1 a piece.

In the hot and humid tropical rainforest of Bintulu , bamboos are a very important forest resource. The ways of using bamboo are very much left to imagination. Bamboos are used to build all parts of a house except the roof, where thatched palm leaves are the preference. There are made into suspension bridges, scaffoldings to reach dizzly heights to harvest bird's nest on the ceiling of caves, river rafts, furniture, handicrafts ( e.g. coin box,baskets,table mats,chopsticks, walking sticks, etc) and young bamboo buds are eaten as vegetables, so called ' bamboo shoots'. Bamboos are the tallest of all grasses, reaching 30 meters and more. And as seen in Chinese movies you can jump and run on top of bamboo trees to execute your kung fu kicks:)))

Feather-leaved Palm Living in Water

From  the feathered-leaved palm tree and the conical roofs across is a distance of about 300 meters.

I clicked this shot today as I was sending my worker back to his village from work at my farm.

The two yellow boats on the left are deep sea trawlers and on the right are smaller coastal fishing boats.

This river is called the Kemena River and as a small boy I used to row a tiny boat to reach this side of the river ( foreground) with my brothers to collect firewood from the sawmill which were all free for the taking.  Our family used to live on the Bintulu town proper side of the river (where the conical roofs  are) in the 60's-70's.

The conical roofs take the shape of our local 'Terendak' , a working hat used by Melanau men and woman for shade against the sun and rain. The blue conical roofs are the wet and dry markets, whereas the green one in the far background ( towards the left) is the 'Tamu' or jungle produce market.

The peculiar palm tree in the foreground is our kind of riverside tree. It grows submerged in water. Called the 'Nipah' in our local Melanau dialect, it grows abundantly along both sides of the Kemena River for kilometers up river where the brackish water at high tide is saline and at low tide fresh.  Often people refer to it as the Mangrove Palm because it is prevalent in mangrove salty marshes or tidal mudflat areas.

A CU View of the Nipah Palm ( Nypa fruiticans)

Seasonal fruits - Dabai (canarium odontophyllum)

It is the moment of seasonal fruits in Bintulu. Towards the end of every year, all kinds of seasonal fruits will be seen in the market place.  Two kinds of fruits shown above are the rambutans ( red and yellow varieties) and the black fruit is called the dabai.

The dabai is sometimes called the tropical olive or Sibu olive.  Sibu being a town in Sarawak where they are found in abundance .

Dabai fruits in baskets

Going to town today, I dropped by at the Tamu ( jungle produce market) to buy a kilo of these rare fruits.  A kilo of dabai, depending on their varieties, tastes and sizes fetch around RM 6 - 15 a kilo in peak season.
How do you eat the dabai? First dip them inside a bowl of warm water for 15-20 minutes.  Then add salt or soya bean sauce for flavour.  The fruit tastes buttery and has a yellowish soft texture. Size is about 3-4 cm long, 2 cm wide. The trees can reach about 20 m high and initially the unripe fruits appear white in colour and changes to red and finally black in its successive ripening stages.  The black skin is eaten together with the flesh but not the seed which is very hard.  Here people eat the dabai with their rice.

A dabai tree by the roadside at Kampung Jepak, Bintulu.  Note the unripe white fruits at the tip of the branches.

Decorative Ketupat wrappings

We are three quarter way through the fasting month of Ramadan and already the 'ketupat' decorative wrappings are on sale at the local 'tamu' or jungle produce market. These decorative pieces are displayed on the walls of  Muslim homes during the 'Hari Raya Puasa' festival,marking the end of the month-long fasting season.   Wait a minute, did I say jungle? Oh ya in their free time while waiting for customers the traders at the 'tamu' weave colourful strips of glossy papers to make these decorative 'ketupat' wrappings and sell them as seasonal items beside their routine sales of jungle produce items like vegetables, fruits,cakes or riverine fishes.  The real 'ketupat' wrappings are made from young coconut leaves. They are filled with glutinous rice to be boiled and served with 'satay' or taken with curry  to welcome the' Hari Raya Puasa' festival soon.

Fresh Pineapple for juicing

This afternoon I bought four of these beautiful pinapples ( Ananas cosmosus) at the 'tamu' or local jungle produce market. The Malay word for pineapple is 'nenas'. One fruit like the above costs RM 1-2 only, each one weighing between 1-2kilos. I bought them to make fresh juice to break my fast today.

Dutch Tuber in Bintulu.

The above are young tapioca leaves just harvested at my farm this morning. Tapioca ( Manihot Esculenta Crantz )are a worthwhile plant to have in our immediate vicinty. They belong to the family of Euphorbiaceae. From its roots we get tubers that can be boiled and eaten with honey, sugar or meat including fish. They are alternative to eating rice or bread. The young leaves are plucked from its soft woody stems as salad or prepared with coconut milk as vegetables. In Bintulu these leaves are sold at the tamu or local jungle produce market at very reasonable price. For example the quantity above could be sold at RM 1 and would be enough for two or three persons eating. Locally tapioca is called 'ubi kayu' or 'ubi Belanda'. 'Belanda' means Dutch in Malay. The later name suggests that tapioca was indeed brought by the Europeans to this region from where it originated i.e. Tropical America.

'Tipuk' Fruits are in Season

These are images of the local fruit called 'Tipuk' by the Bintulu Melanaus or 'Panyun' by the Ibans. They belong to the Zingiberaceae family ( Ginger family) and of the Hornstedia species. I took these pictures while doing my weekend shopping at the local jungle produce market we call 'Tamu' in Bintulu last Sunday. These fruits have a sweet sour taste and are eaten raw. The contents of the small bowl (in white) is sold at One Ringgit Malaysia.