Brunei cuisine?

[GaijinGirl]

Does anyone know if there are any local dishes/regional cuisine distinctive to Brunei? Or is it all just a variation on Malaysian? (I've been researching Southeast Asian food, and haven't seen anything specific to Brunei.) Thanks for any info!

Best,

Janet C. (Gaijin Girl)

[Laksa]

AFAIK, the majority of the population of Brunei are Malays. The Chinese and the native Dayak are minorities. I believe the food would be characteristically Malay.

I've had only a few meals in Brunei, the most memorable of which was a sandwich from Dunkin' Donuts. As far as I can recall, there was little difference between the Malay food of Brunei and that of Malaysia.

On weekends, the Chinese in Brunei travel in droves to neighbouring Miri (in Malaysia), where -- in sharp contrast -- the Chinese food is better and cheaper, and alcohol is freely available.

[anzu]

According to this website,

kek batik

is unique to Brunei. It also sounds utterly delicious.

[GaijinGirl]

Anzu,

Thanks for the link - it does sound good - don't know if there's much else out there for Brunei cuisine, but kek batik at least seems worthwhile! (I'm researching and trying to sample all the southeast asian cuisines - it looks like the hardest to find is going to Brunei and Macao....!)

[anzu]

As far as Macao is concerned:

I don't have the time to search out the name of the book right now, but there is a cook book written by a female author that goes country by country through places which were former colonies of Portugal. I seem to remember that the word Portugal or Portugese was in the title.

It's a long time since I read the book, but I'm relatively sure it had a section on Macao. I think there was mention of local versions of Caldo Verde and so on. (?)

I've travelled through Macao about ten times in all (it was the easiest way for me to get from Hong Kong to a part of China I was living in for a while), so although no stay was particularly long, I do have a passing aquaintance with the food. It didn't look to me as if there was a huge difference with the Chinese food in comparison to that available in Hong Kong or directly over the border in China. (I could of course be completely wrong about this).

There was quite a lot of Portuguese style food on offer as well, though, and maybe there are some interesting spin-offs there?

If you aim is to go through all the food in SE Asia (a most worthwhile aim ), have you checked out Cuzinha Cristang by Celine Marbeck? (Malaccan-Portuguese cooking)

Edited to add: the book mentioned above is Cuisine of Portuguese Encounters by Cherie Hamilton. Among other cuisines, it covers the food of Macau, East Timor and Malacca.

There is also Taste of Macau by Annabel Jackson.

Edited July 19, 2005 by anzu (log)

[GaijinGirl]

Ooooh, great info, Anzu! Yes, I plan to run through each and every country in Southeast Asia (and the SARs) - I'd try all of Asia, but it's just too vast and way beyond my abilities (at least at this point.)

So far, I've delved deeply into Malaysian, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, and some of Burma. Next on the agenda are Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia and Japan. Then I'm hitting the harder areas like Cambodia, Laos then Brunei and Macau.... WOW am I going to be busy for awhile!!!!!

Edited July 20, 2005 by GaijinGirl (log)

[Pan]

Should we have a thread on Timorese cuisine next? (No, unfortunately, I have no knowledge about it.)

[GaijinGirl]

Yes, we should!! :)

[Pan]

OK, I'll start one.

Herewith, the Timorese cuisine thread.

Edited July 20, 2005 by Pan (log)