All About Ambuyat

- August 21, 2017

Ambuyat set, part of Sabah Ethnic food menu at @dplacekepayanperdana. A Maxis 4G hotspot location. A great place to know about traditional food of Sabah. #maxis4gmakanlocal.

According to Wikipedia, Brunei's national dish is ambuyat, a dish made from sago. Visually, its nothing much to look at. Basically, its a stretchy, starchy paste made from pouring hot water into sago. Traditionally, its eaten with a special bamboo utensil called the chandas (looks like a long chopstick for kids because its joined at one end). Using the chandas, one rolls the ambuyat around the sticks. As you can imagine, its also tasteless, so its eaten with a wide variety of sauces (cacah) and side dishes to add flavour. Since its already so hard to pick up, imagine eating it. The secret is not to chew at all, just swallow it! Well I had the chance to try it at a sungkai buffet at Empire Hotel. For something that looks like the congealed leavings of a bukkake party which are best swallowed, it's a surprise that I didn't like it!