The Serumpun Codex · Salt, fats, sugars and honey
Gula Apong
Unrefined sugar from the sap of the nipah palm, tasting of caramel and earth.
The entry
- Name
- Gula Apong
- Other names
- Nipah palm sugar
- Scientific name
- From the sap of the nipah palm, Nypa fruticans Wurmb
- What it is
- Unrefined sugar from the sap of the nipah palm, tasting of caramel and earth.
- Knowledge from
- The makers of Kampung Pinggan Jaya and Sri Tajo (Samarahan), Asajaya, and Kampung Spaoh (Saribas).
- How it is used
- The flower stalk is tapped and the cut shaved morning and evening; the sap is boiled in a large pan (kawah) and stirred to a paste.
- In the French Borneo kitchen
- With Bario cinnamon, the glaze for the binchō-tan chicken, Course II, Forest, at Osaka; a glace with Daun Bungkang.
- Season and place
- Sarawak's coastal estuaries. Young stalks are tapped from July for three to four months.
- Conservation status
- Not applicable
- Codex Alimentarius
- No Codex standard
- Medicinal knowledge
- Held privately by the community
- Consent
- Given, recorded by CHASS, 30 October 2026
Still to be confirmed: who shared it with Serumpun.
Sources
Added to the Codex on 1 November 2026. Sources last checked on 30 October 2026. This ingredient is also told in James Won's words in The Living Pantry.
Anyone may cook with this knowledge, commercially too, provided the community it comes from is credited by name. To correct or withdraw this entry, write to the Custodian at connect@chefjameswon.com.
How to cite this entry
Serumpun Sarawak (2026) ‘Gula Apong’, The Serumpun Codex, ed. James Won. Available at: https://www.chefjameswon.com/serumpun/codex/gula-apong/ (sources checked 30 October 2026).
Quote any entry with this citation, and name the community whose knowledge it is.