The history of Sumatra : $b Containing an account of the government, laws, customs and manners of the native inhabitantsMarsden, William
History
The history of Sumatra : $b Containing an account of the government, laws, customs and manners of the native inhabitants
Marsden, William
Natural history -- Indonesia -- Sumatra; Sumatra (Indonesia)
the heart, at the same time whole and separate, so that no two grains
shall adhere together. The manner of effecting this is by putting into
the earthen or other vessel in which it is boiled a quantity of water
sufficient to cover it, letting it simmer over a slow fire, taking off
the water by degrees with a flat ladle or spoon that the grain may dry,
and removing it when just short of burning. At their entertainments the
guests are treated with rice prepared also in a variety of modes, by
frying it in cakes or boiling a particular species of it mixed with the
kernel of the coconut and fresh oil, in small joints of bamboo. This is
called lemmang. Before it is served up they cut off the outer rind of the
bamboo and the soft inner coat is peeled away by the person who eats.
FLESH-MEAT.
They dress their meat immediately after killing it, while it is still
warm, which is conformable with the practice of the ancients as recorded
in Homer and elsewhere, and in this state it is said to eat tenderer than
when kept for a day: longer the climate will not admit of, unless when it
is preserved in that mode called dinding. This is the flesh of the
buffalo cut into small thin steaks and exposed to the heat of the sun in
fair weather, generally on the thatch of their houses, till it is become
so dry and hard as to resist putrefaction without any assistance from
salt. Fish is preserved in the same manner, and cargoes of both are sent
from parts of the coast where they are in plenty to those where
provisions are in more demand. It is seemingly strange that heat, which
in a certain degree promotes putrefaction, should when violently
increased operate to prevent it; but it must be considered that moisture
also is requisite to the former effect, and this is absorbed in thin
substances by the sun's rays before it can contribute to the production
of maggots.
Blachang, a preservation, if it may be so termed, of an opposite kind, is
esteemed a great delicacy among the Malays, and is by them exported to
the west of India. The country Sumatrans seldom procure it. It is a
species of caviar, and is extremely offensive and disgusting to persons
who are not accustomed to it, particularly the black kind, which is the
most common. The best sort, or the red blachang, is made of the spawn of
shrimps, or of the shrimps themselves, which they take about the mouths
of rivers. They are, after boiling, exposed to the sun to dry, then
pounded in a mortar with salt, moistened with a little water and formed
into cakes, which is all the process. The black sort, used by the lower
class, is made of small fish, prepared in the same manner. On some parts
of the east coast of the island they salt the roes of a large fish of the
shad kind, and preserve them perfectly dry and well flavoured. These are
called trobo.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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