: : Mum-Mum : : Eat-Eat : :

: : Lemang ~ Iban Pulut : :

After travelling to the nearby mining town Bau to visit a friend, she gave me a piece of bamboo with lemang inside it. Lemang is glutinous rice cooked with santan @ coconut milk inside a piece of bamboo. Because of the length of the bamboo, it’s usually cooked under an open fire. Not that easy to do, it takes experience. Banana leaves are cut into strips and later rolled up to cover the entire inner surface of the bamboo, leaving the center part empty for the rice. The gluotinous rice is poured until it fills up about 1/2 of the bamboo. Later, a mixture of coconut milk and water is added in to cook the rice. Place over an open fire, the bamboo being supported at the top by a wooden frame.

Here is the piece of bamboo filled with lemang. Note that it was already cooked by the time I brought it back home. Granny immediately wanted to try it out.

Using a knife, she started to make some slits along the length of the bamboo. Luckily, the bamboo used is a young one so it was easy to cut. Young bamboo aren’t as thick as the older ones which can be half a centimer thick! This one was half as thick. Make two slits so as to make it easier to pry the bamboo open.

SuperGranny! Check out those abs!

Tada! The exposed lemang. The green wrapping is the banana leaf.

And, here is the lemang. It’s very red because it was made from the Iban Red Glutinous Rice. Tasted really nice. Goes extremely well with rendang or curry. Goes very well with satay as well.