Pangi or Kamat (in Iban)

 Small land crabs were caught by Foochow padi farmers in the olden days.

My cousin Yew Ping was a good catcher of Pangi the small land crabs and together with my 7th aunt they would make nice crab sauce called pangi chiong in Foochow. Today this sauce is very expensive because the small land crabs are almost extinct.

The river bank bushes were cut and then placed together for the little crabs to hatch their babies after some time Yew Ping would go to the mud bank and catch the crabs trying to run away. She would be very quick with her hands. An early morning outing for her would find her collecting one or two buckets of pangi. The mating time for the pangi is in the 8th lunar month when the padi fields and mud banks of rivers were ready for them to hide.

Foochow men and women with padi fields would watch the land closely to see signs of pangi crawling around. I was once told by Sarikei people that they had even seen pangi crossing the road after the mid Autumn moon.

On a good 8th month day, Yew Ping would come back with a bucket or two of washed pangi. Aunt Chiew would give her a hand. After cutting off some of the pincers and taking out the stomachs and dirt, salt would be added to the cleaned crabs.

By then the crabs smelled fresh and

good. Usually after two nights'  fermentation and salting, the crabs would be crushed by the stone mill. That would be the time when everyone would rally around to see the red sauce coming out of the stone mill. every oe would be happy to help turn the stone mill. Aunt Chiew sasid that it was a lovely and happy time for the whole family. Great grandma would be the happiest.

The red sauce would be transferred into the formic acid bottles to be sunned in the patio of the house. The sun would help the feermentation process and within a week or so the pangi sauce would be read,

Pang ngai were the bigger version of small land crabs. They would be caught, cleaned and stir fried with ginger and soy sauce. They cannot be made into pangi sauce. Dyuring the Japanese Occupation it was a good sauce of protein but some girls could be very allergic to this type of crabs.

Today pesticide and Weedicides have almost entirely wiped out pangi and pang ngai.