Sarawakian Local Delights No.4 : The Golden Brinjal or Terong Dayak

A dish of the Sarawak golden egg plant, or the wild Sarawak golden brinjal is a home cooked delight. Foragers can easily go into the wilds and, today in abandoned farms even, to collect a few of these round golden brinjals. They can be used make a simple soup, or just boiled brinjals, or a simple stir fry for a good meal with rice. In Sarawak they are called Terong Iban.

This berry (the brinjal is from the berry family) is sourish sweet and the best quality ones are fit for restaurant use.
Today local restaurants in Sarawak prepare fish head curry with them. The specialty ThaiTomyam would have a special taste if some slices of this brinjal are used.

In most longhouses, a good hospitable host would never forget to serve a large bowl of terong cooked with pork bones, or chicken .

There are so many ways of cooking it.

Just boil the terong with some garlic and onions and you can have a huge pot of sweet sourish vegetable. Every one will love it.

And also it can be easily cultivated nowadays.

And so perhaps to most Iban longhouse dwellers, this terong is the easiest dish to prepare for guests, even if they drop by unexpectedly.