September 20, 2017

Sarawakian Local Delights : Tepus

Tepus is Achasma megalochellos.


Tepus shoot is soft and sweet with a special fragrance. It is edible either raw or cooked. However, it is not that easily available now in the jungles due to rapid deforestation in Sarawak.
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Tepus is grown in loamy soils and part of the wild ginger family which is endemic in Sarawak. It is often eaten raw, with a sambal belacan dipping sauce. When cooked with prawns and bamboo shoots the dish is a delicacy to the Ibans. It is often added to soups like tom yam seafood soup to give it a special aroma.  Tepus is a good ingredient for fish soup as it can eliminate fishy smells.

Tepus is often stir fried with belacan and can be mixed in a salad with shredded dried fish.

But it is best cooked in bamboo with fish. The bamboo stem and the compacted meat, lemon grass and tepus, with the natural juices of the ingredients bring together an unforgetable aroma and authentic and organic jungle dish which is out of this world.

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Pansuh ikan and tepus. Out of this world recipe.

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Tepus stir fried with anchovies, belacan etc. 
The tepus flower is beautiful and is found at ground level. Tepus is found on hill slopes under the canopy of bigger trees.
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Tom Yam cooked by Antonia Anne. Tepus is part of the soup. Excellent

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Fish head in a thin tomato soup with tepus
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Fish tom yam soup with tepus


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My own simple stir fry tepus with belacan.

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