MUKAH: Sago grubs, locally known as se’iet and forest grubs, known as lelamas are among some of highly sought Melanau exotic delicacies.
Sago grubs are found in rotting sago pith and sago stumps.
They can also be easily found on sago farms after the logs have been harvested.
For the last one or two decades, instead of going to the forests, some people prefer to bring home the 80cm-long sago sections and place them in the vicinity of their houses so that they can collect the sago grubs.
Sago grubs are eaten raw, cooked, fried or barbecued.
The Melanau also like to prepare their sago grubs in other ways, too, such as making them into tebaloi (minced and mixed with sago starch and grilled over fire) and seluboh (minced and mixed with sago pellets and water and cook).
About 30 years ago, sago grubs were part of the Melanau menu only, but now the exotic food has become popular among the Chinese and become part of the menu in eateries here.
The cost of sago grubs per kilogramme has also increased from about RM20 some 20 years ago to as high as RM60 now.
Comparatively, the forest grubs are a few times more expensive than the sago grubs.
About 30 years ago, forests grubs was sold for below RM50 per kilogramme, but now the price has sky-rocketed to as high as RM400.
This is because the forest grubs are scarce.
Each forest grub is about 6-cm long and 1-cm in diameter.
It is not known how they are formed but you can find them wrapped in leaves and hanging on small trees.
When the leaves are opened, they appear in two forms – as worms and pupae — and both forms are edible.
According to some Melanau elders, the pupae will transform into various insects including butterflies.
It is believed that nyatoh tree (benyatok in Melanau) is the forest grubs’ habitat.
The lack of nyatoh tree now, due to agricultural development, is believed to the main reason why the supply of forest grubs has decreased drastically over the years.
It is hard now to get forest grubs in Mukah and Dalat now.
Some people say sago grubs have protein and high fat contents, but not much information is available about the forest grubs.
