Ambuyat

Ambuyat is made from pouring hot water into ambulungor better known as sago. Sago is derived from a tree trunk, believe it or not. The trunk of a rumbia tree (scientific name, metroxylon), a family of palm trees such as coconuts, are used to make sago. The trees are cut down. Then they are stripped of fronds and other coverings before being cut into several pieces. These cut pieces are stripped of their hard bark. The pieces are then scraped or grated by machine onto a sluice.

The scrapings with the impurities are sifted out leaving the sago in a wooden trough filled with water that will be drained away once the sago has settled down. The dug out is then filled with water once more and the mixture is stirred thoroughly. After the water is drained off, it will reveal the sago as white solids or lumps. These sago lumps are then packed in basket-like tampin woven from the nipah leaves before being taken to the market. Nowadays, processing ambulung is less labourious as machines have taken over most of the work. (The following photos is a sequence of events required to turn a rumbia tree into ambuyat, just in case you need to explain it to someone, one of these days.)

&ambuyat is also known as, "Ambulung"