Always A Delight

By FARIDAH BEGUM


Soaked brown squid with water convolvulus in a sweet spicy sauce is a great appetiser.

Soaked brown squid is a delicacy that often innocently makes it way on to the dining table and steals the thunder from other dishes.

Often cooked in a spicy sambal and devoured with Nasi Lemak or plain rice, it is also a wonderful appetiser in the form of the Malaysian favourite, Sotong Kangkung. No food court or hawker joint is complete without this on the menu.

What must be right is the sauce, which is not unlike the sweet bean sauce that comes with your chee cheong fun and this version has either ground peanuts or lots of roasted sesame seeds.

The squid must also be done well. Sometimes, the squid can be a pure let-down, especially if it becomes soft and without bite.

Crunchy and thick, you are on your way to more than just a good plate of appetiser with the dish.

Apparently from reading about Malaysian food, we found that sotong kangkung is very popular in Sabah and Sarawak and they have a good number of stalls that sell this fare, although some have commented that it is a tad too sweet as compared to the ones in the Peninsular. Whatever, it is the tastebuds of individuals and different people will taste different degrees of sweetness and saltiness in the same plate of food.

While many have responded to our sms call last week, here are just a few good places to look for your sotong kangkung.


Sotong kangkung rebus: A delicious snack food.

At the Grace Point and Bukit Padang in Kota Kinabalu, the sotong kangkung comes highly recommended as the portions are generous and the sotong done just right to provide bulk and crunch. The kangkung or water convolvulus is also very fresh and blanched just enough to maintain a good crunch for vegetable lovers.

In Kuching Sarawak, the Kuching Open Air market also has a stall selling sotong kangkung and is said to be quite good too. The Hui Sin food court here also has a sotong kangkung stall that serves an authentic version of this simple fare and is said to come with a generous sprinkling of roughly ground peanuts.

In the Peninsular, sotong kangkung is a very popular evening and dinner dish among friends, hence it being more commonly sold at night than during the day.

In the north, specifically in Gurun, Kedah, Kedai Kopi New Light, which is opposite the Gurun Magistrate’s Court at 294, Main Street, the sotong kangkung is a must as it is said not only the sauce is good, it is the kangkung that makes all the difference!

At Madras Lane, well-known previously for the exotic meats that were sold here, there is a stall that serves a good sotong kangkung and assam laksa here.

The portions are big and is good to share, besides the gravy here, one of the most important components to hold the dish together, is very tasty, so say those who have gotten a taste of it as it is a non-halal stall.

The eat street on Jalan Sayur in Pudu, which was featured in last week’s Sunday Metro, also has a stall selling sotong kangkung and again, we are told that the dish has been constant in taste as the years evolved.

For those in Petaling Jaya, drop by Tony’s char kway teow at Store 1073, Uptown Hawker Stall in the Uptown Centre of Damansara Jaya, Petaling jaya, and here, you will find the sotong kangkung, although many say it tastes better when had with the char kway teow than on its own.

The Pantai Remis Kopitiam with origins from Perak at the IOI Mall in Puchong also has sotong kangkung on its menu and is said to be as good as those sold in the open air stalls.

Further south at the Neighbourhood Coffeeshop in Taman Equine, Seri Kembangan, one of the many stalls here sell sotong kangkung all day long and is said to be popular with the residents around.

Crossing the Selangor border and moving down south, a stop at the back alley on Jalan Bunga Raya will bring you to a stall that serves an authentic sotong kangkung, Malacca style.

Spicy and sweet with loads of brown squid, it is delicious and you may not want to share. Again, the sauce makes it good.

In Johor, at the Tepian Tebrau, most Johoreans get their sotong kangkung fix here, again with the sauce being the source of this enjoyment.

In Sync With Apple Cultivation

BA'KELALAN: The quaint Ba'Kelalan town at the northeast of Sarawak is today synonymous with apples, literally the fruit of one man's labour.

Tagal Paran, 75, affectionately known as Pak Tagal, is the man credited with cultivating apples in Ba'Kelalan, the only place in Malaysia were apple trees thrive.

Apples are known to survive in the temperate climate but the former pastor's inquisitiveness and determination made them thrive here.

Where others tried and failed, he persevered and triumphed.

In fact, Pak Tagal is confident that one day Ba'Kelalan will provide all the apples that Malaysia needs.


Fruit of his labour: Pak Tagal showing apples harvested in Kampung Buduk Nur recently.

Located 900m above sea level, the placid district has a cool atmosphere similar to New Zealand but apples are certainly not indigenous here.

The apples and the annual Apple Fiesta make Ba'Kelalan an enchanting destination for visitors.

Pak Tagal's younger brother Andrew Balang Paran brought 50 wild apple seedlings from Kalimantan in the 1960s after he saw locals there cultivating the fruit, and the rest is history.

However, only in the mid-1970s did he seriously venture into apple cultivation by taking over 300 apple trees planted on a trial basis on his land by agricultural authorities.

He realised that the trees were dying slowly and the authorities had limited knowhow on apple cultivation.

“I immediately set off for Batu Malang in Indonesia to learn more about apple cultivation and enlisted the services of two apple growers from there.

“I went to Indonesia three times to obtain new seedlings. It was all by trial and error,” he said, reminiscing on his foray into apple cultivation.

Pak Tagal's 3ha orchard in his village of Buduk Nur now has 2,000 apple trees, and he has four workers to assist him.

About one tonne of apples are produced in a season at his orchard, he said.

The apple trees bear fruit twice a year, normally during the middle and the end of the year.

The trees are pruned to simulate winter and the leaves are shed manually.


Warm welcome: Pak Tagal (third from left) posing with his wife Yammu (second from left) and son Mutang (left) in front of Apple Lodge at Kampung Buduk Nur in Ba'kelalan.

Soon, after the induced stimulus, the trees begin to bloom and bear fruit.

The apples are grown without pesticides and chemicals fertiliser.

The are varieties of apples grown here.

The Manalagi (Golden Delicious), has been renamed the Ba' Kelalan Apple. The fruit is greenish-yellow in colour and tastes sweet and crunchy. It is suitable for apple pie and fruit salads.

The Anna, which is red on top and yellow below, is sweet and sour and feels soft.

Rome Beauty is green with a reddish tinge at the bottom. It is similar in taste to Anna but feels crisp.

The Granny Smith is green and tastes sour. It's the apple for cooking and making cider.

The apples are marketed in Lawas and Miri but are in limited quantity.

Pak Tagal is confident that, if people in the nine villages in Ba'Kelalan start growing apples, Malaysia can export apples.

He pointed out that there were other temperate fruits like citrus, strawberries and grapes that could be grown here.

He is already experimenting with strawberries and some villagers are cultivating Arabica coffee.

Nonetheless, there is a serious setback.

Ba'Kelalan is virtually isolated as it is located in a remote area close to Kalimantan in Indonesia. Access to the outside world is only through airplanes and four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Thus, there is no way to export the apples in big quantities.

But Pak Tagal need not despair as plans are underway for a 170km road from the nearest town of Lawas at the foothills.

He is confident the road will pave the way for big companies to undertake apple cultivation on a big scale, and the apples can move up the value chain when processed into jam or cider.

With the road, Pak Tagal envisions Ba'Kelalan emerging as a leading producer of highland fruits and vegetables for Sarawak, like Cameron Highlands is to the Peninsula and Kundasang to Sabah.

Nevertheless, apples are not the main produce of Ba'Kelalan.

The fragrant Adan rice (Bario rice) is the main commodity of locals.

Yet, Pak Tagal believes that apples will remain as Ba'Kekalan's forte in wooing the tourists.

Ba'Kelalan receives up to 3,000 tourists annually, mostly Europeans, and the number is expected to increase.

The retired missionary with agriculture close to his heart is reaping the fruits of his labour.

The genial Pak Tagal and his wife Yamu Pengiran have seven children – Dr Judson, Mutang, Dina, Rangai, Gerit, Martha and Sandra.

Like the apples, Pak Tagal's family is the pride of Ba' Kelalan and its people.

His son, the late Dr Judson, was a former Ba'Kelalan assemblyman and state deputy minister. Another son, Mutang, a lawyer, is the former Member of Parliament for Bukit Mas.

The family operates the Apple Lodge homestay facility in Buduk Nur where visitors can get a taste of the customs and traditions of the Lun Bawang people.

The annual Apple Fiesta at the end of March is in the Sarawak Tourism calendar and visitors can see and savour the apples right at Pak Tagal's orchard.

This humble man has vowed to continue with his passion.

Pak Tagal does not seem to realise that his passion for cultivating apples has made him an icon and helped Ba'Kelalan gain prominence in tourism.

Apples in Ba'Kelalan are no myth, thanks to Pak Tagal.

– Bernama