The Serumpun Codex · Ferments, grains and starches
Sago
Starch rasped and washed from the trunk of the sago palm.
The entry
- Name
- Sago
- Other names
- Balaw, the palm (Melanau); lemantak, the wet starch; biji sagu, the pearls
- Scientific name
- Metroxylon sagu Rottb., native to Maluku and New Guinea, grown in Sarawak
- What it is
- Starch rasped and washed from the trunk of the sago palm.
- Knowledge from
- The Melanau of Mukah, Oya and Dalat, for whom it is the staple.
- How it is used
- The pith is rasped, washed and pressed for starch; pearls are rolled through a bamboo mould (takung) and baked in a clay pot.
- In the French Borneo kitchen
- A crust of sago and hill rice on the Empurau, Course I, River, at Osaka; the dessert at the Kuching Finale.
- Season and place
- Mukah, Oya and Dalat
- Conservation status
- Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.
- Codex Alimentarius
- CXS 301R-2011, edible sago flour (regional standard, Asia)
- 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
- Chong & Collins, 2015
- JKKN cultural mapping
- Plants of the World Online
- GBIF, IUCN Red List category for Metroxylon sagu
Added to the Codex on 1 November 2026. Sources last checked on 1 November 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) ‘Sago’, The Serumpun Codex, ed. James Won. Available at: https://www.chefjameswon.com/serumpun/codex/sago/ (sources checked 1 November 2026).
Quote any entry with this citation, and name the community whose knowledge it is.