The sago pellets are roasted over a wood fire until they are golden and crunchy. — ZULAZHAR SHEBLEE/The Star
SAGO, rather than rice, has traditionally been the staple food of Sarawak’s Melanau community.
It comes from sago palms, which grow in lowland forests and peat swamps.
A common way of consuming it is in the form of sago pellets. These crunchy little round balls can be eaten as a snack, side dish or in a place of rice.
Making sago pellets is part of the cottage industry in Mukah, a coastal town in central Sarawak which is home to the Melanaus.
Sago logs are floated along the river to a factory to be processed into starch.
At a kitchen in Kampung Teh, Mukah, Saamah Adrus and two other women entrepreneurs produce about 20kg of sago pellets a day.
Saamah, 61, has been making the pellets for about 40 years.
She said the main ingredients are sago starch, locally known as “lemantak”, dessicated coconut and rice bran, which are mixed together into a dough.
The dough is then placed in a shallow sieve, which is shaken back and forth to form tiny balls. The size of the pellets depends on the size of the holes in the sieve.
A boy running on sago logs being transported by river to a factory to be processed into starch.
The pellets are roasted over a wood fire for half an hour to an hour.
“We keep an eye on the fire to see how long it takes to roast the pellets,” Saamah said, adding that the women usually start making the pellets at 3am and finished at 4pm or 5pm.
The roasted pellets are packed into biscuit tins, which are sold at RM35 each in the village.
