I bought a plate of Buah Jering (Pithecellobium jiringa) from the Slim River wet market on my way to Tibang waterfall . Mind you, this is no ordinary Buah Jering. These few fruits have been planted in the ground till they grow shoots, which supposingly makes the fruit even tastier!
RM1 for a plate of Buah Jering
This fruit, though not as deadly as the Buah Kerdas (LINK) still packs a powerful after digestion by-product…smell. This fruit, together with Kedas and Petai gurantees an after small in your piss everytime. I have never been a big fan of Jering but I decided to give it a go this time, since the fruits have all began to grow and perhaps they would ‘complement’ my nasi lemak lunch well.
These Buah Jering have started to grow!
Another interesting item I saw on sale at the same stall were water-filled clear plastic containers with fishes inside. The fishes are called Puyu (Anabas testudineus) or the Climbing Perch. They are freshwater fishes (survives brackish waters too) and is a popular choice on the menu as well as an aquarium fish. Puyu is best prepared fried or as salted fish for eating. They are very common in areas with loads of padi fields and water channel. They are very hardy fishes which can be kept in aquariums and even containers without the need of an oxygen pump. Some even say that during draughts, this fish can bury itself in moist mud deep inside the bottom of the water pool and wait until the next flood or rain before it re-appears.
Ikan Puyu being sold in containers
According to the owner, he is selling the fish as an ornamental fish but there is another story behind this reason. Many believe (especially among the Malay community) that the Puyu is a fish to be kept at home to ward off evil spirits. Some people say that it can also be used as a ‘host’ where curses from a human can be transferred to. Not sure how all these believe came about but one website suggests that the fish’s ability to live in two worlds (water and mud) makes it ‘special’ or ‘magical’.
On that day, I walked away with a few pieces of really nice Jering. They were awesome, made a good ulam for my nasi lemak. As for the Ikan Puyu, well…I decided to leave them alone. I prefer not to have any form of talisman at home. Not expecting any evil spirits anytime soon.
You eat these stuffs too? Hehe.. Have u try jungle petai? Can be as big as a thumb.. heaven! If you drive further along the uia gombak route around the alang sedayu you’ll probably can buy them from the orang asli fresh from the jungle. Though its hard to find nowadays. Pickles petai is delish too.
True, ikan puyu is being used as a pendinding (to block evil spirit entering house). Why? I have no idea.
Hi bzfishing! Oh…I would love to try those petai you mention. Yummy. I too used to have ikan puyu in my aquarium but after a while they really turn on the other fishes. Decided to let it go at the nearby river
I am a regular reader of your blog posts. I liked the recent one and other posts on your blog so much that I have subscribed to the blog’s RSS feed in Thunderbird. Even thinking of stealing some ideas and put them to work. Keep all the good work going by posting more informative posts. Thank you. Time well spent on this post.
Thanks