Sarawakian Local Delights : Old Hens with Lemon Grass Cooked in Bamboo

The old layer hens are sold in the market for about 15 ringgit each. Most chefs use them to prepare superior chicken stock. But there is a very good dish to make out of one or two of them.

Many  indigenous eateries in towns offer old layer hens cooked in bamboo (with lemon grass , ginger and garlic). It is a very popular dish and the meat becomes very tender when slowly cooked in bamboo.

Perhaps this idea of cooking old layers come from the longhouse culture. Young hens are always kept until they can no longer lay eggs and raise families. Only then they are slaughtered.  The fighting cocks when killed in their fights during Gawai are usually taken home to be eaten.

An Iban man who used to work in the timber camp exclaimed, "Unlike the Chinese we Ibans do not roast or steam our spring chickens. We are very respectful of our domestic animals and let them live out their destiny, lay eggs, raise more chickens and populate the longhouse backyard."