Pejalai

This is the promised dedicated post on Tebaloi. The food that is synonymous with the Melanau of Sarawak. Tebaloi is some sort of a cracker made from sago powder (in shredded form). This cracker is made from the same stuff the sago grub eat.

We start with this traditional method of making it. I assume this Kilang is a family affair.

Relatively the tebaloi start in the blender machine.

With a mix of certain stuff to give flavour, texture, colour and smell. (please refer to recipe at the bottom). This so call dough will go on to the next phase..

Later on the dough was spread evenly on a banana leaf to get the nice thin physic of the cracker. Somehow they only use banana leaf because it is the most suitable material, I was told. Bottle is use to spread the dough on the leaf. That lady can done it smoothly and evenly…

You end up with this.

They put it aside for a moment. I don’t know why they do so. Maybe for letting the dough settle.

Later on they bake it over this traditional style oven. They have mangrove wood as fuel, I believe this wood give a very stable and consistent heat as it burn away. This is the first baking phase.

Half way through the baking the tebaloi is taken out for cutting. At this stage the tebaloi is still soggy but manageable. It is cut into small pieces (almost the size of ½ A4).

Another shot of the pre-baked tebaloi. Still soft..

The cut tebaloi then go through it’s final baking process. This is where it get the crunch. Actually it’s more like smoked not baked. *noticed the cylinder to vent out excess smoke?

The finish product is weight and packaged. Ready to ship out.

Next we visit yet another Tebaloi factory with a modern twist.

Located not far from the traditional one. This one is under Jabatan Pertanian.

Actually they do the same thing here only they use industrial type machine to process the tebaloi dough.

See the same dough…

They have this huge electric baking oven to bake the Tebaloi to perfection. They use production line concept to mass produce the tebaloi. Taste the same… but you will not smell the smoke on the tebaloi.

So for those who is adventurous enough, try your hand on making one. Below is a pamphlet given by the factory. It contain instructions to DIY your Tebaloi.

technorati tags: Mukah, Food, Tebaloi, Melanau