Sago Worms: Serve with Tuak

Why should we have it with Tuak?

tuak wine


It's a celebration! Of my ending my Mulu journey, on my first time trying out Sago Worms, and I was in Kuching for heaven's sake! Tuak is like the signature liquor in that part of the world. Or country. Or among Ibans to be exact.

Tuak - fermented rice and yeast wine with sugar. (Though I coudln't really taste the sugar)

sago worms and tuak


And besides~~~~ *long drag*, if I was going to eat something that wiggly, I might as well have something strong to go with it.

wriggly sago worm


So lesson of the day, and first lesson you should know when consuming a live wiggling sago worm, is how to tear off the head.

When something is alive and kicking (squirming in this case), you should know that it can bite too.

Would you want it to bite your tongue while you struggle to swallow it? Or would you rather it find its way up your throat when you're trying to push it down?

Neither? Good. Off with its head!!

pinch
*note* those are not my fingers.


Grab it firmly between your index and thumb and try to tear it apart, like how you would with a paper.

It would be a bit difficult as the skin can prove very elastic.

pinch the wriggly worm


It will try to wiggle its life out (hey you're trying to kill it), but be persistent.

pinch it hard


tear worm head


tear worm head 2


argh! (it IS quite difficult to tear)

tear worm head 3


Now brace yourself for the next photo.


Head off.

tear worm head 4


*barf*

Then place it in your mouth, you may close your eyes, pinch your nose, whatever, as long the headless bugger it's in there.

half sago worm in mouth


Don't ask me how it smelt, I stopped breathing at that point!


sago worm head
What's left of the corpse.


The skin, as stated before, can be tough to chew and swallow, so some people prefers to spit the skin out after consuming the inards.

chewing sago worm


dead skin


End of lesson.


Now for the real thing.


I have gathered all my fellow kuching-nites to meet at The Junk for a last gathering before my departure from Sarawak once and for all.

derek me and bong with sago worms


drekker alvin and clare


It was an exceptional night, despite the fact that we were all hyped about the sago worm eating experience, yes it was a first time for all of us.

All of us except Clare, the wonder woman who once had it and showed off to me when she knew I was desperate to try sago worm. *growl*

clare peeling sago worm


So we had her demonstrate to us first hand on how to eat sago worm (Actually we were just slacking off because none of us wanted to start first, lol).

everyone taking photo of clare
Curious crowd, lol


Everyone was pretty excited. We were like ohh-ing and ahh-ing all over the bar.

clare doing more peeling


clare eating sago worm


And eee-ing when Clare popped the worm into her mouth.


me being excited over sago worm head
"omg look, the head!"


me taking photo of clare
call me paparazzi


After the demonstration, each of us went in pairs to start the eating fiesta!

Henry and Shawn were brave enough to dive in first (or did I shove them in? erm...)

henry and shawn


The rest of us went to the other side of the bar and started snapping photos away like paparazzi, flashes from numerous cameras were coming from all direction.

I bet you never ate a worm and felt like a star before huh?

henry and his worm


shawn showing his worm


There went the brave, in came the cowards.

derek and drekker


Meet Derek (left) and Drekker. I always got their names confused.

Now Drekker was the cool one, but Derek, oh Derek, you got to see Derek consume a worm. It's hilarious. (Photo will tell the story)

derek worm 1
Bong instructing Derek on preparing his worm the right way


derek worm 2


derek worm 3


derek worm 4
come on.. we don't have all day~ :p


derek worm 5


derek worm 6
LOLOLOLOL


On the other hand...

drekker worm


It took Drekker 1 minute to finish his worm, it probably took Derek 15 minutes. LOL

Bong (yes, his name, tee hee) and I were next in line and we weren't as courageous as the first pair, maybe better than the second pair, but definitely more drama than either of them. ROFL.

me and bong with sago worm


When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

nicole eating sago worm


Shall we start? (You may read the captions for the storyline)

me and sago worm
Wasn't my best hair day, what can I say, I just got back from 3 days in the rainforest.


Let's have a drink first.

drink tuak first
*buying time* @_@


Picking.. picking...

picking up worms
Clare stop laughint at me.


choosing worms
I can't decide, which one should I go for?


geli of the worm
*squirms away*


me and bong
Bong stepped in to choose for me.


playing with my worm
Playing with my worm.


ok i'm going to eat you
Okay, I'm going to eat this now.


flash lights on me
Here I go....


nicole peeling off sago worm head
First... tear.


me trying to peel off worm head
"Damn this worm is hard to tear."


peeling off with strength
Goddamnit, tear you bitch!


eww disgusting worm
"Oh god, the head just came off. Ewww"


nicole eating the worm
pose one with the (very dead) worm


Pop and in went the worm. Photo session!

nicole sucking sago worm


Now for the thing that every girl hates to do - swallow.


The moment the headless worm slided down my throat, I was screeching my head off, jumping up and down hoping no atrocious taste would reach my taste bud.

jumping and shrieking


So I closed my eyes... and waited for the taste to hit me..


and waited...

and waited......


And I opened my eyes,

chewing


and and...


looking at bong
Look at Bong


And.. and...


Nothing came.


it tastes like tuak


i can't taste anything


Yea well, thanks to the shot of Tuak I had prior to my "meal", I couldn't taste anything at all. Or perhaps the worm was just tasteless.

Erm... (most of them did say it was rather tasteless, some say it's like chicken, but then again everything exotic tasted like chicken)


Bong had his worm pretty damn fast and no one has a photo of him eating it. Such a brave man. LOL.

And that marked the end of our sago worm fiesta at The Junk, Kuching.

Thank you everyone for coming.

In the end we had the bartender fried us the rest of the live sago worms as late night snacks.

plate of fried sago worm


So.. sago worm anyone?

bong and i



PS// I have a video somewhere, I'll see if I can find it, edit it and then post it up here in the next post.

Till then, have a wonderful appetite everyone. :D :p

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10 kissed Nicole

  1. ..........................

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  2. You are not suppose to play with your food :-) just pop it in and chew the next time, hahahaha

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  3. So which was better, the live worms or the fried ones?

    By the way, I saw people eating these worms on Survivor and I believe they said that it tasted like peanut butter. Maybe the innards?

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  4. hahahha... I can see Bong laughed so hard... XD

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  5. WP: Yeah the innards tasted abit like peanut butter... The live ones were not shabby, but I would go with fried sago worms over french fries in my McValue meal any day... =D

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  6. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee........so "wat tat!"

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  7. Eeeeewwwww.... Yucks! Yucks! Yucks!!!!!!!!!!

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  8. I think sago worm is more of the Melanau's traditional food. I have never tried it raw and alive but I have seen my grandfather ate it fresh and alive from the sago tree!! I ate it fried with onions and garlics (*very nice*) or even dried sago worm (*quite crispy*) but I stopped eating it after I developed allergy to it =P Anyway, glad that you tried it. Now you can tell people, I ate worm before, beat that! =D

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  9. oh, all the cruel ppl... :)

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  10. goodness that was so damn disgusting! alright im from kuching and i never knew where to get sago worms. but after seeing your pictures, they ARE DISGUSTING!!!! i had goosebumps

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