Tahai
During a trip to Lawas recently, I took the opportunity to sample dadah tahai prepared by a food stall in town where ikan tahai is widely sold as a delicacy at pasar tamu and also sought after in nearby Limbang, Brunei and Sabah.
Visitors to Lawas are bound to hear of Kampung Awat-Awat from the locals. It is well known for its small ikan tahai cottage industry, promoted by the Agricultural Department.
Getting to the kampung in northernmost part of Sarawak in the Sundar sub-district, takes up to 45 minutes along the 30km-route from Lawas town before one reaches the end of the road leading to the Merdeka Pier.
The road is bumpy along several stretches. If these are repaired, the journey will take only 30 minutes.
At Merdeka Pier, there are stilted wooden bridges on the riverbank that lead past a ‘floating school’ and several ‘floating fish cages’ and link up with jetties and other structures.
You do have to watch your steps on the bridges but the breathtaking view of many ‘floating homes’ — houses built on stilts — across the river flowing to the open sea makes up for your trouble in crossing them. The bridges soon lead to two rows of ‘floating smokehouses’ called rumah tahai.
According to Norsiah Munap, vice chairman of the Phase II Smokehouse Project, there are several smokehouses built with the help of the Agricultural Department.
Each row has five doors (for five smokehouses) — the row for Phase II was built in 1998 and that for Phase III in 1999.
The smoke from the burning logs is stinging to the eyes and the door should be kept open when one enters the smokehouse. Here is where ikan tahai is produced by smoking the juvenile ikan tamban, about 10cm long.
Ikan tahai is also called ikan salai (smoked fish) except that the name ikan tahai is unique to the locals and ikan tahai has been an important part of the diet of Brunei-Malays for a long time. Many of them live in the fishing villages.
The price of ikan tahai depends on the season. Currently, it is about RM20 per kg but can range from RM15 to over RM20 during the monsoon when supply is less.
Norsiah, who has been working in the ikan tahai cottage industry for about 13 years, showed how ikan tahai was smoked — she turned over trays of the fish set on wire nettings from time to time.
‘Kayu bakau’ or mangrove hardwood is used because it burns hot and slowly, and produces the right type of smoke for the fish. It is available from nearby mangrove forests along the river but to save time and effort, it is usually purchased at RM1 per log.
“No preservative is used. With only salt from sea water, ikan tahai can keep for a week, and much longer, if refrigerated,” Norsiah assured.
After a two-day smoking process, ikan tahai can last up to a month, preserved by its own salt from the sea, and it can be eaten on its own or cooked in dishes.
“You have to remove the skin and the bones to eat ikan tahai but for the satay fish that we also make, you can eat it right away,” she added.
With her daughter, Nur Atika Samsudin, who is a nurse and who helps out the family business in her spare time, Norsiah explained how some of the ikan tamban were cut and sliced to remove the bones.
“Ikan aur-aur bulat (rainbow sardine) is used to make satay fish, the meat is cured in brine and spice mixture for a day, and then smoked for another day,” she said. The price of satay fish is a bit more expensive — from RM20 to RM25 per kg.
Another local businesswoman, Zainon Bakar, said they did not stay in the smokehouses and their homes were across the river, some distance away.
She also gave a few ikan tahai recipes for visitors to try out.
A story on ikan tahai is not complete without sampling ikan tahai cuisine, so I asked around for a place that offered such a dish but surprisingly there wasn’t any.
Could it be that there wasn’t enough ikan tahai to make this local food a regular fare in Lawas?
While keeping a dinner appointment with Sofiah Mat Sidek, a trainee teacher, her husband Zaidon Dullah and their seven-year-old daughter, the subject of ikan tahai came up.
Zaidon, a teacher, volunteered to locate an ikan tahai stall in town and came across one at an open-air food court. Although the stall did not have ikan tahai on its menu, it would still prepare the dish for us provided we could supply the fish.
This did not pose a problem since we had bought some ikan tahai in Kampung Awat-Awat.
Sofiah helped to peel the ikan tahai. My wife and I chipped in to speed up the work as there were over 20 pieces (about half a kg) to take care of. All the skin, bones, heads and tails were removed and put aside. These accumulated to quite a lot of waste — the cats would surely love them!
The bones tended to be prickly and peeling them could be a painful job. We stopped after about 20 pieces as it was time-consuming, and besides, we were already feeling quite hungry.
Anyway, there was more than enough ikan tahai for the two dishes — dadah tahai and sambal tahai — we requested.
We waited patiently and the dishes did not disappoint — dadah tahai was a refreshingly sourish and spicy soup while sambal tahai was tasty and spicy. Simply delicious!
After deducting the costs of rice, drinks and other side dishes, we estimated the two ikan tahai dishes for four people to cost about RM20 to prepare.
As an afterthought, the food could have been better had the main ingredient, ikan tahai, been well deboned, and for better sambal, the ikan tahai meat should have been pounded too.
Kampung Punang
To verify the claim that the fishing village in Kampung Punang, about 15 minutes drive from town, is producing more and better quality ikan tahai, I made a trip there the next day.
Unfortunately, the village folks said ikan tahai was not in season and there wasn’t any ikan tamban to smoke. However, it was the season for ikan pusu, and lots of it was seen being dried under the hot sun on roadsides and bridges interlinking the stilted houses along the river bank.
According to a kampung fish trader, fresh ikan pusu, also called ikan bilis, currently fetches about RM3 per kg for vendors who resell them to customers at about RM7 per kg.
According to him, the fishing boats usually go out to sea early in the morning, returning between 10am and 12 noon, depending on the volume of their catch.
Sanir Andan, 33, a fisherman for over 20 years, said he rented a boat at RM2 per ‘tong’ of fish. According to him, the catch is sent to the fish factory in Simpang Kuala Bukit Sari which pays about RM14 per tong, and on a good day during the peak season, the catch can reach 100 to 200 tongs per day.
The scenery at Kampung Punang is different from Kampung Awat-Awat’s. There are no floating smokehouses here, only floating homes connected by wooden bridges.
I talked to a group of women folks chatting in a shed on the river and was told the ikan tamban fishing season was expected to start in July and the fishing grounds were too far from the village during the off-season in April.
So the local fishermen switched to catching prawns and other fish instead, they said.
However, they pointed out that if there were supply of ikan tamban from Sabah, the women folks would accept ‘upah’ (a fee) to produce ikan tahai based on the rate of RM10 for a four-to-five kg basket of fish.
Sawiah Adam, 45, who was busy cutting a bowl of baby ikan tamban, said the smoked fish fry were even more delicious and crispy like ikan bilis or anchovy.
The fingerling is about two to three inches long, processed like the bigger ikan tahai and a bit more expensive.
With no supplies from Sabah and no landings from the kampung fishing boats, there wasn’t any processing of ikan tahai at Kampung Punang as indicated by an empty land-based smokehouse with mangrove logs stacked nearby.
Walking through the kampung, we saw lots of ikan pusu being dried under the hot sun on the wooden bridges.
Lawas Fishermen Association
Once back in town, I paid a visit to the local Fisheries Department office and arranged to meet up with Lawas Fishermen Association chairman Awangku Tajudin Awangku Ibrahim in his office.
“The fish move in shoals and the experienced fishermen know what types they are and can estimate the quantity of fish in kilogrammes,” Tajudin explained.
According to him, Kampung Awat-Awat has more fish than Kampung Punang which, in turn, has more fish than Kuala Lawas. This is because of the former two kampungs’ proximity to the fishing grounds further out from the river mouth of Sungei Lawas.
He said the Kuala Lawas fishing village was near the river mouth where the brackish water was turbid due to the river water pouring into the sea. Consequently, there are fewer ikan tamban to catch.
He also said for better quality fresh ikan tahai should be used whenever possible, cautioning that quality may be affected if frozen fish were used.
For out-of-season production, he added, fish from Sabah might be used to produce ikan tahai.
According to Tajudin, ikan tamban bulat or rainbow sardine is used to make fish satay because it has thicker flesh and fewer scales. Ikan tamban minyak, which has more oil, is used fresh in cooking, or dried under the sun, and ikan aur-aur which has thicker scales, is used to make ikan tahai.
On the irregular and dwindling supply of ikan tamban in Lawas, he proposed: “We like the Fisheries Department or LKIM (Malaysian Fisheries Development Board) to build a much larger tukun tiruan (artificial reef) in Brunei Bay”.
He added that this was to ensure a steady supply of ikan tamban through breeding within the man-made reef that should be protected and out-of-bounds to fishing vessels.
Although there had been a few scattered tukun tiruan made of concrete and old tyres over 10 years ago, they were insufficient and now sinking into the muddy seabed, he said.
“We understand it may cost millions to build a large reef but it will be worthwhile in the long run to save and expand the ikan tahai industry.”
As things are now, ikan tamban have to be imported frequently from Sabah to meet the increasing demand for ikan tahai.
In fact, Ikan tahai used to be produced in neighbouring Brunei but the cottage industry there has closed down and the Sultanate is now importing from Lawas.
Unless sustainable fishing is ensured with a bigger breeding ground, the situation might worsen to threaten the ikan tahai cottage industry here.
For visitors without the time to visit the fishing villages, Tamu Lawas is a convenient place to buy raw ikan tamban, and ready packed ikan tahai and ikan pusu.
Septuagenarian vendor, Dayang Piah Salleh, of Kampung Punang, recommends two types of ikan pusu — one
dark-coloured and smoked like ikan tahai which has a nice smoky aroma and flavour, and the other, a light-coloured sun-dried anchovy that is tasty but not aromatic. Both fetch RM2 per packet.
Ikan pusu is a useful supplement to the ikan tahai cottage industry which, in itself, is peculiar to Lawas and has the potential to draw tourists to the scenic fishing villages in the Division.
Although a seafood restaurant is said to be operating in Kampung Awat-Awat or Kampung Punang, it was nowhere to be found when we were there — even the locals are unaware of it.
Perhaps the project did not materialise or was abandoned, which is a pity as it would have helped promote ikan tahai and bring in more tourist ringgit.
To first-timers, ikan tahai resembles burnt fish with slightly charred and golden brown colours on the outer skin that should be peeled and removed to reach the meat underneath.
Ikan tahai and satay fish smell strongly of smoke, typical of barbecued fish, and could be mistaken for being burnt by those who do not fancy barbecued meat.
In comparison, ikan tahai, produced in Kampung Punang, is crispy although less tasty while the ikan tahai from Kampung Awat-Awat is tastier but not so crispy. Longer smoking time could have produced the crispier variety but at the expense of flavour. Some people may prefer the crispier type while others might go for the taste.
There are also people who dislike ikan tahai because they think it smells like burnt meat. Certain people in the tropics are not used to smoked meat although it is common in temperate countries where the people have to preserve meat for winter, and smoking is a good way to achieve that without using chemical preservatives.
Ikan tahai, satay fish and ikan pusu are useful additions to our diet as they supply the proteins and minerals we need besides being rich in healthful Omega-3 fatty acids, and low in mercury.
Although there are government marine and inland aquaculture projects to diversify the income sources of the fishing villages, the ikan tahai cottage industry should continue to be supported as well as promoted in a big way to sustain supply of the marine products so special to Lawas.
Who knows, ikan tahai could even become an asset to the tourism industry and help generate other income sources for the fishing community in Lawas.
Accout by Chua June 24, 2009 at 12:20am at Facebook Topic: Nothing ‘fishy’ about dadah tahai
