Wild Fruits Anyone?

Just the other day while at the Bintulu tamu ( jungle produce market) I stumbled upon a variety of wild fruits on sale. In Sarawak there are not less than 75 species of wild fruits. These fruits can either be seasonal or non -seasonal. Below are a few examples.

The fruit of the well known 'rotan' ( Calamus ornatus), non-seasonal.

The rotan fruits have scales on the outside and the pulp have an extremely sour to bitter taste.

The rotan or rattan is a very versatile product of the rainforest jungle creating a huge rattan furniture export industry for Malaysia.

The seasonal Ong Balem

'Ong Balem' meaning the Balem Fruit ( Mangifera pajang) in Melanau is available mainly in

December every year. They taste generally sweet when ripe. Young balem fruits are eaten too

as salad in which case it is usually eaten with the well known shrimp paste called 'Belacan'.

The seasonal 'Engkala ' fruit which is an all-time favourite of mine.

The 'Engkala' fruit have a soft pulp and is eaten raw together with its soft pink skin, after being

dipped in warm water for a brief five minutes. I however prefer to eat it with a pinch of salt for that additional ' Umph'.

The sourish ' Asam Paya' (Eleodoxa conferta)

The asam paya fruits are eaten raw and have a strong sour to bitter taste. Sometimes they are made into pickles and sold by many street fruit vendors in town.

Tampoi ( Braccaurea bracteata)
The 'tampoi' fruit has a white sweet pulp and is mainly eaten fresh. A local wine is also prepared from this fruit.

Serving the 'Bald Fruit' - Ong Balem ( Mangifera pajang) at Eco-farm

If you like mangoes then you should like these slices of 'ong balem'. Both the mango and the 'balem' are from the same family i.e. mangifera. The taste can range from sweet sour to very sweet. Unlike the mango the balem fruit is very fibrous and for that matter I love to eat it. Guess it is good for the stomach and general body upkeep. Whereas the mango is known as mangifera indica, the balem is called mangifera pajang. The word 'Ong' in the Bintulu Melanau dialect means fruit, thus 'Ong Balem' - the fruit of the 'Balem' tree.

Bintulu is now in the full swing of the seasonal fruiting season which is at its peak in the months of November right till December annually. At any day now at the Bintulu tamu or jungle produce market you can see the above ' bald ' looking fruit called the 'balem' in the local Melanau dialect. The Ibans call them 'Bambangan' and among the nomadic Penan tribes, it is called 'Alim'. The going price per fruit of the above size ( about 1-1.5 kilo) is RM 1.

In my childhood years we used to joke at a bald-headed guy as 'Ong Balem'. A secret code only a few knew.

The skin of the balem fruit is thick and in a single fruit of say 1.5 kilo, half a kilo will be its skin and another half its sizeable seed. The skin is easily peeled off from the pulp or flesh and its important to follow the fibrous veins to cut it neatly and easily.

The ripe balem fruit is best taken fresh. Its thick skin are sliced into small pieces and can be eaten as salad with the local shrimp paste or belacan. Besides that the skin can also be done as pickles.

Now this tree is tall indeed. It's the balem tree at our eco-farm and its long and straight trunk reaches about 35 meters high at the top of the canopy. Lest I forget, the young leaves of the balem can be eaten raw as salad, of course with the local belacan paste. I believe this tree must be around 60 years or more.

The balem tree can be found wild in mixed dipterocarp forests but rare. It is mainly a cultivated tree in Sarawak's lowland evergreen forests like our eco-farm for instance.