The Serumpun Codex

Consent comes first. For every entry, the communities gave it through CHASS, the Culinary Heritage and Arts Society Sarawak, on 30 October 2026, under Serumpun's ten principles. Anyone may cook from an entry, commercially too, provided the community is credited by name. Medicinal knowledge stays with the communities. A community can correct or withdraw its entry at any time.

Some entries carry a historical botanical or natural-history plate, now in the public domain, with its artist, book and year. The plate shows the plant. The knowledge belongs to the community named in the entry.

Every fact carries its source. Where an ingredient falls under a Codex Alimentarius standard or a Malaysian Geographical Indication, the entry gives it.

Serumpun Sarawak (2026) The Serumpun Codex: forty Sarawak ingredients, ed. James Won. Version 1.0. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23879129

Each entry also carries its own citation, with the date its sources were last checked.

The whole Codex as data, for research and teaching: spreadsheet (CSV) or JSON. Version 1.0 is also deposited at Zenodo, the open research archive run by CERN, under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The same terms apply: credit the community by name, and cite the Codex. Medicinal knowledge is not included. Because a community may correct or withdraw its entry, please use the current file rather than an old copy.

• Daun BungkangAn aromatic leaf that smells of bay and tastes faintly sour when dried.
• Ipa' KayuA wild leaf of the Bario highlands, worked by hand to draw out its bitterness.
• Cassava leafThe young leaves of the cassava plant, pounded and always cooked.
• PegagaA small, round-leaved herb eaten raw or cooked.
• Mani CaiA leafy shrub whose sweet young leaves are eaten cooked, never raw.
• UlamLeaves, shoots and fruit eaten raw or just blanched, alongside rice.
• MidinThe young fronds of a climbing fern, picked at forest edges and riverbanks.
• Upa pantuThe heart of the pantu palm, peeled to its core and boiled as a soup.

• Torch gingerThe pink flower bud of a tall ginger, used to scent curries, laksa and ferns.
• TepusA wild ginger whose fruits and young shoots are eaten.
• TuhauA pungent wild ginger stem from Sabah.
• LitseaA small, peppery berry that smells of citrus and camphor.
• Bario cinnamonA warm, sweet bark from the Bario highlands.
• Sarawak pepperThe black and white pepper of Sarawak's pepper vines.

• Bario saltMountain salt from the brine wells of Pa' Umor, boiled down and packed in bamboo.
• EngkabangThe fat pressed from the illipe nut, solid at room temperature and melting like cocoa butter.
• Gula ApongUnrefined sugar from the sap of the nipah palm, tasting of caramel and earth.
• Kelulut honeyThe sour, floral honey of stingless bees.

• KasamThe Iban way of fermenting fish, boar or beef with salt and rice.
• Belacan of BintuluFermented shrimp paste, salted, sun-dried, pounded and pressed into blocks.
• TempoyakOverripe durian fermented with a little salt.
• TapaiRice or cassava fermented with ragi, the starter cake, and the base for tuak.
• TuakRice wine of glutinous rice, ragi and sugar, fermented in a jar and aged.
• Bario riceThe highland rice of the Kelabit, harvested once a year.
• Job's tearsA tall grass with hard, pearl-like grains.
• Black glutinous riceA dark, sticky rice among Sarawak's rice varieties.
• SagoStarch rasped and washed from the trunk of the sago palm.
• TebaloiA Melanau sago biscuit, baked twice.

• DabaiA small purple-black fruit with rich, oily flesh.
• Terung asamA round, sour, yellow fruit of the nightshade family, cooked as a vegetable.
• BambanganA wild mango of Borneo with thick skin and resinous, sour-sweet flesh.
• Asam payaThe sour fruit of a peat-swamp palm.
• Buah kulimA forest fruit that smells of garlic and is cooked in its place.
• Buah keluakThe seed of the kepayang tree, poisonous until it is washed, soaked, roasted or fermented.
• PerahThe seed of a forest tree, poisonous fresh and eaten boiled, roasted or fermented.
• Split-gill mushroomA small, fan-shaped wild mushroom with a chewy, savoury bite.

• EmpurauA prized river fish of Sarawak's great rivers that feeds on fallen fruit.
• TekuyungRiver snails gathered and cooked by longhouse families.
• Weaver antsTree-nesting ants whose adults and eggs are eaten.
• Sago grubThe plump larva of the sago palm weevil.