Rice harvest feast with the Semelais; Part I

One of the Semelai women cooking up a dish for the kenduri

This is my first ever rice harvest feast (kenduri) experience. Good friend Pak Abu told me about an invitation by a Semelai we mutually know to attend his kenduri to celebrate the good harvest of his hill rice. Besides good makan, we also had the good fortune of seeing and learning new things this time around.

Semelai is one of the 18 indigenous ethnic groups in Malaysia

Semelai is one of the 18 aboriginal ethnic groups in Malaysia. I have to say that I am very fortunate to have gotten to know these wonderful people. Having lived around the Lake Bera are for more than 600 years, there is definitely much to learn about them and the area they live in.

We arrived at the kenduri place spot on 11am as planned. The kitchen area was already buzzing with people preparing food. There was a sense of joy happiness among the people present. Adults and children alike were busy preparing food. We only realize the magnitude of the kenduri when we saw the amount of food prepared.

A total of 26 chickens have been slaughtered for this feast

Buckets of catfish to be fried...yum

Buckets of potatoes, cabbages and other types of vegetables ready for cooking

All these food and makan is to celebrate the good harvest of hill rice by one of the villagers. This year, the rice field has produced a good harvest and today we will all be eating ‘new’ rice.

The cooked hill rice in the white box while the uncooked grains in the woven basket

A close-up of the uncooked grains of rice

There were of course some local dishes from the lake. Cooking was done by both women and men over open fire. I can never understand how they can manage such big woks.

Bulk cooking like this is a big challenge but it brings people together

The stove stand is fashioned from an old motorcycle tire rim welded to tripods

So, what did we have? We had freshly harvested Semelai hill rice, catfish, chicken curry, vegetables, fried chicken and some traditional dishes I’d rather not ask the host! Anyway, they all tasted really good. I like the glutinous rice especially. The way it is prepared made it not too sweet yet the flavor of the rice is enhanced.

Some of the dish spreads

Semelai’s own glutinous rice

Everyone took turn to eat. We were considered ‘guests’, so we ate first with the elders. Outside, the villagers were also enjoying their food while singing local rhymes and poking jokes at each other. The entire atmosphere was joyful and merry. There were constant chattering, laughter and passing around of plates, bowls and trays of food. Everybody ate, drank and enjoyed themselves. As for myself, I am astounded experiencing such kinship among the people. I guess this is what a true ‘kampong’ life is like.

A Semelai young girl eating on her own on the raised platform

Semelais preparing Pinangs for chewing

Our trip to the Semelai village for a kenduri did not end there. In fact, we had the good fortune to discovering something new as well. This is just the first part of a good experience with a traditional kampung feast.