We’re looking for a country in southeast Asia that’s rich in oil and gas. So rich in fact that its residents don’t pay taxes. And they have one of the highest living standards in the world.

Not bad. But those oil and gas reserves are starting to decline. So the country is trying to branch out. It’s marketing itself as a financial center and tourist destination. Visitors should definitely try the country’s signature dish. It’s called ‘ambuyat’.

“If you eat the ambuyat, it’s sticky”

Can you name this tiny sultanate where you’ll find this sticky dish?
Extra credit if you can come up with the capital.

Answer: The wealthy sultanate in southeast Asia is Brunei.

And for extra credit, its capital is Bandar Seri Begawan. That’s where reporter Nancy Greenleese went to sample a gelatinous native dish:

In the West, food courts usually aren’t hot spots for adventurous eaters. But in an office building in Bandar Seri Begawan, you can dine on Malay, Chinese and Indian specialities. One stand offers more than 30 dishes with accompanying photos. But my boyfriend John Henderson and I don’t see Brunei’s signature dish.

“Ambulat? Do you have ambuyat?”
“Ambuyat?”
“Yeah, yeah – we do.”

Maricel Santano says ambuyat doesn’t need any promotion here.

“No need to make the picture because all the Bruneians, they know already.”

Nor is ambuyat exactly photogenic. Maricel’s co-worker Emma pours a white powder called sago into a saucepan. It’s the ground-up pith of a sago tree. She adds hot water and mixes it to the perfect consistency.

“Sitting in front of me is this white bowl filled with this substance. It’s very sticky, it almost looks like glue.”

Or snail trails or the result of a prolonged sneezing session. But waiting and debating whether to eat it won’t help. Ambuyat is best steaming hot, before it congeals. Maricel gives us chopsticks that are attached at the top – like a prong.

“You may open first the chopstick. And then make it round and round.”

She twirls it like taffy.

“The people from Brunei put a big glob on?”
“Oh yeah, they make it until the chopstick is full!
“And they take that in one bite!”
“It’s very easy.”

The bland ambuyat is helped down with dipping sauces. Maricel coats the blob with a sauce of the sweet-n-sour binjai fruit spiced with chilli. Swallow it whole, she tells us.

“Oh my goodness. Ok? So I just eat it, right? It’s quite good. I like it. Tell me, do you like it?”
“Yeah, I like it. I like her smell, smell good. And then if you eat ambuyat, it’s sticky”

but John makes a face.

“Ewwww…”
“No good?”
“It’s okay. The texture is funny. It’s just slimy, slides down your throat.”

“It’s a revival. For a long time, nobody ate it.”

That’s Ignatius Stephen, a Bruneian and journalist for the Borneo Bulletin. And then the tourism thing came in and it became some sort of “in” thing. But I think it’s going to stay for a while ’cause I think they are discovering the past a little bit through the local flavors.

Ignatius lounges outside the café that he owns, the DeRoyalle. As traffic whizzes by, he says the nomadic jungle tribes of Borneo have eaten ambuyat for centuries. Other Bruneians eat rice. But during World War II, the Japanese took over the paddy fields.

Many people survived on sago. Many people became very ill because they didn’t have a balanced a diet. Can you imagine swallowing glue for three years?

But ambuyat has become a comfort food for Bruneians born long after the war. Their elders talked about those destitute days and how they survived, thanks to this belly-filling dish. Ignatius’ friend, U.S. embassy diplomat Justin Friedman, says it’s a celebratory meal.

“For them, they strongly associate it with family and home and big pots of the ambuyat and sauces and everybody sitting on the floor, dipping and eating and talking and having a good family time. It’s almost like the Thanksgiving turkey.”

One piping-hot mouthful after another, they appreciate their wealth. And, like Americans, they’re also thankful for the side dishes just in case they can’t quite savor the slimy ambuyat.

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