Gawai Dayak Feasts

While the ladies are busy decorating the house for the Gawai Celebration, the men are busy preparing delicacies for dinner which consists of barbecued pork, wings, fishes and sausages. Of course the favorite would be the pork head, which had been skinned from the skull. During Gawai, none of the pigs’ parts were spared ~ they will be mutilated from head to tail. The barbecue mixes are marinated for few hours with some salt, pepper, garlic and oyster sauce. Though the ingredients were very simple, you will be surprised that the taste will be extremely good. The taste should not be overpowered by the taste of the mixed ingredients. The pork should still have the smell and taste of the pork in order to maintain the authentic flavor and taste of it.

The Dayaks nowadays are mostly Christian. A typical Dayak's family of a devoted Christian background would normally say their prayer before the meals. The less devoted one would have to pretend that they too are praying.

Look at the foods. You can choose what you want and best of all, its' free. Real yummy and irresistible. Pick up the small sliced and simply dip in the extra hot sauce mixed with bird-eye chilies and garlic. You will break to tears out of happiness and spiciness of the chilies.

Even the young kid and grandpa could not resist but to hop in.

 

Guess what? It’s the pig’s brain. Bizarre food challenges. Nobody dare to try. Too nasty for the Bornean palette. It will be kept frozen until the arrival of Andrew Zimmern to try.

The man is a pilot with a domestic flight agency. He showed us how he shot the flying fox in a single shot. He claimed that he loved shooting animals with wings. Won’t it be like coincident?

The flying fox will be stewed tonight for late night supper. The fox needs to be cooked with lot of spices such as the lemongrass, garlic, onion, some salt and pepper in order to remove the strong odors of the fox. The Chinese believed that fox would be good cure for those with asthma. However for Dayaks, the fox is just an ordinary rare exotic meat that would be eaten occasionally as it is a seasonal hunted animal that are only available during fruits season.

The last delicacy for the night would be the 'pansoh', which is the chopped chicken stewed in bamboo and mixed with some salt and pepper. The bamboo is used as substitute to cooking utensil. It is not like the Dayaks could not afford the expensive 'Falcon' kitchenware. They simply enjoyed the hardwork and troubles in preparing the 'pansoh'. It is an old typical exotic recipe inherited from the older generations.

The tapioca leaves are used to cover the bamboo and at the same time to add the extra flavor to it. Only a little water is added as the stewed ‘pansoh’ will produce its own juices as it is cooked. The taste of the mixtures will be extremely aromatic after cooked. The stew would have the strong aroma of the bamboo and the tapioca leaves, that you would refuse delicacies served by Martin Yan.

At 12 sharp, few gunshots are being made as to mark the beginning of Gawai Festival. The next morning we heard that a plane was found crashed at a nearby village. It is reported that there were few gunshots' holes spotted on the wing of the plane. Oops!