Sarawak Laksa & Midin (Forest fern)

SARAWAK LAKSA

Sarawak Laksa comes from the Malaysian state Sarawak, on the island of Borneo. It is actually very different from the curry laksa as the soup contains no curry at all. It has a base of Sambal Belacan, sour tamarind, garlic, galangall, lemon grass and coconut milk, topped with omelette strips, prawns, fresh coriander and optionally lime. Ingredients such as bean sprouts, (sliced) fried tofu or other seafood are not traditional but are sometimes added.

MIDIN (FOREST FERN)

Local vegetables are served widely in Sarawak. Particularly the two types of crispy jungle fern, midin and paku. Forest ferns have a special place in the diet of the people, with the two most popular ferns used as vegetables being midin and the fiddlehead fern (pucuk paku). Midin grows wild in the secondary forests and is peculiar to the state. It has curly fonds and is very crunchy even after it has been cooked. Rural dwellers have always considered the fern a tasty, nutritious vegetable and the jungle fern's rise from rural staple to urban gourmet green occured in the 1980's with the increased urban migration of the Iban. Aromatic leaves from trees, such as Bungkang, are also used in cooking to flavour food.