MANOK PANSUH
MANOK PANSUH
Sarawak is part of the oldest, biologically-diverse rainforest on Earth, with a genetic repository that is much older than the Amazon rainforest. More than 67% of Malaysia’s largest state is under forest cover. From the air, it is a lush carpet of green with a complex network of rivers snaking throughout the land.
Sarawak’s forests and rivers largely influence the lives of the indigenous people, who have a history of being very reliant upon the forest for food and medicines, as well as much of their building materials. Their forebears lived in or at the forest fringe, usually along rivers, fishing, hunting and foraging for food.
The Iban tribe are from Sarawak, Borneo. Their traditional foods are called Pansuh food, which simply means the cooking of food or dish in a bamboo stem. It’s naturally clean, easy and simple. The food (meat, chicken, fish, vegetables and even rice together with the spices) will all be put together into the bamboo stem, then directly placed over an open fire to be cooked.
The uniqueness of using the bamboo stem to cook is that the bamboo will give a special aroma and texture to the food where it’s impossible to have using other methods such as using woks.
One of the best known Iban dishes is pansoh manok (ayam pansuh), which features chicken and lemongrass cooked in a bamboo log over an open fire. This natural way of cooking seals in the flavours and produces astonishingly tender chicken with a gravy perfumed with lemongrass and bamboo.
The origin of ayam pansuh is not available, but the Ibans and the Bidayuhs (people of Sarawak) always prepare this dish on any celebration days, especially the Gawai Dayak (celebration for the end of harvesting).
In line with the current modern world, ayam pansuh not only stated as “festival foods” but it is also served at the 5-star hotel in Sarawak and abroad.
