Sarawakian Local Delights : Three Chillies and Birds' Brinjals with Ikan Bilis

Birds' brinjal or terong pipit can be grown very easily in the upper valleys of most rivers in Sarawak. Thus the longhouse people are blessed with this special vegetable. Tiny little pearls of terong pipit can be harvested and carried home by the farmers as they completed their day's farming.

One of the easiest ways to cook terong pipit is to stir fry the vegetable with chillies, some belacan, ikan bilis (ikan pusu), lots of onions and some slices of ginger. This dish can become a good side dish and stored for several days, especially  if it is made quite salty or with lots of soy sauce. This side dish is a real rice pusher.

Besides, the dish, which can be eaten cold is often carried in the back packs by the farmers for their afternoon meal while they are at the farms.

Vinegar can be added to the dish, to change its tastes and flavours. It is an amazing dish. It is just so practical to cook quite a bit of the terong pipit before the birds come and eat them all up from the tree.