Buntal!

One of the fishermen in Bakam has several dried specimens hanging from the roof of his stall. And to my delight I came face to face with this rounded and puffed up form of a buntal!! This fish also called Puffer Fish or Fugu in Japanese. While the Japanese have been famously preparing the fugu as an exotic delicacy for generations we Sarawakians only like the eggs and in its salted form. However many have also found a new taste in deep fried buntal but its preparation has to be very delicate as prepared wrongly the buntal is fatal.

I must commend the fisherman for his proactive attitude of bringing good well preserved natural specimen to his stall and making it a living classroom!! Pity he was too shy to have a photo taken. May be next time I'll offer to take a photo with him like a tourist or I can persuade him when I bring this photo and a printout of this posting to him in the future.

The Chinese characters for this fish is River Pig. (Shui Ju) The Japanese actually eat thousands of tons of well prepared fugu every year.



Pufferfish contains lethal amounts of the poison tetrodotoxin in their internal organs, especially the liver and the ovaries, but also in the skin and the testicles. And to be absolutely safe from poisoning only licensed chefs are allowed to prepare fugu. So be warned.
The well preserved puffer fish/buntal specimen hanging from the "kajang" atap or roof of the fisherman's stall in Bakam.


Newly marinated buntal eggs look like this. One pair and not really separated. Today you can buy a pair of salted buntal eggs for about RM10 in Saratok shops.

FromNicolekiss Thanks Nicole!!

Isn't she pretty in blue?

Another pretty puffer fish.


I am writing this post especially for my children who once loved salted buntal eggs. In the early 80's we travelled "up and down" a lot the whole of Sarawak looking at small towns and visiting Kuching and Sibu. We as parents with our own agenda dragged them around everywhere and I am really ashamed of having put them in discomfort and in a lot of personal agonies at time. Perhaps sometimes in danger too. I just hope that as they grow older they too will forgive the nasty nightmarish parts(bad and dusty roads and poor road side food at times of emergency and unpreparedness and of course the occasional puncture) but enjoy the good memories.

One of our favourite places to stop by was Roban near Saratok where we could buy a few tins (!!)of salted buntal eggs and stretch our legs.These eggs were sold not by weight then but by the piece. And then like Santa Claus I would distribute the buntal eggs as gifts to friends and relatives in Miri!! While we would be just so happy to eat one or two of the eggs every day until we finished our stock we would think of other ways to improve our meals!! I really like the way our boy used to ask while we were in the middle of lunch "What's for dinner ma?" He really loves food!

But be assured we were just never too tired of the salted Buntal eggs then. One of my regrets was the digital camera was not invented then. All my coloured photos taken then are turning yellowish brown in the albums like fading memories.

Today alas - we can no longer get buntal salted eggs easily as we don't go to Roban any more. Our friends have moved to Kuching to be with their grandchildren( hopefully just temporarily). I have been thinking of kampong style fried rice served with a sprinkling of fried buntal eggs on top with lots of basil leaves with chopped spring onions and fried onions.

What a pity that these "caviar" of Sarawak may be disappearing slowly.

I can think of Special Sarawak Fried Rice with Five different Kinds of Eggs . What a fusion cuisine it would be - Fresh chicken eggs -Century eggs- Salted eggs- salted buntal eggs- and fresh /salted terbuk eggs!! How more exotic can you get?