The Serumpun Codex · Ferments, grains and starches
Job's tears
A tall grass with hard, pearl-like grains.
The entry
- Name
- Job's tears
- Other names
- Nyeli, lingkau (Iban)
- Scientific name
- Coix lacryma-jobi L., native to Borneo
- What it is
- A tall grass with hard, pearl-like grains.
- Knowledge from
- The Iban, who grow it between rows of rice.
- How it is used
- Cooked with rice, or boiled with honey as a drink. On Slow Food's Ark of Taste.
- In the French Borneo kitchen
- In the overture at Osaka.
- Season and place
- Sown in September, harvested in January
- Conservation status
- Not applicable: a cultivated crop
- 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.
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) ‘Job's tears’, The Serumpun Codex, ed. James Won. Available at: https://www.chefjameswon.com/serumpun/codex/jobs-tears/ (sources checked 30 October 2026).
Quote any entry with this citation, and name the community whose knowledge it is.