My first encounter with ambuyat at the Rizqun International Hotel is not pleasant at all, perhaps because that is what's expected of hotel food or maybe due to the buro-like but-not taste of the dip conjured from several pots by a well intentioned hotel restaurant staff.
Ambuyat is Brunei's national dish and I have learned a long time ago that hotels are not the right place to explore the local cuisine but with the residents themselves, in our case Judy Morente and her husband who took us to a place patronized by locals where we had our best meal ever in Brunei.
Ambuyat is actually a feast where the main dish is pot of thick sago paste extracted from the rumbia tree/sago palm, harvested from the pot with a V-shaped bamboo fork called candas then lightly drenched in a cacah dip and eaten with a variety of side dishes or ulam-ulaman which for our dinner were beef jerky (tapa) and deep-fried cow lungs, a kaldereta-like beef dish (rendang?), sauteed fern shoots, fried fish and slices of fresh vegetable.
Brunei is the second smallest ASEAN member state in terms of land area at 5,765 suare kilometers but with the least population at 5.4 million people, and the 5th richest country in the world and therefore considered as a developed nation, so rich that its citizens do not pay any taxes and social services are free and of high quality.
It has so much surplus money that Brunei built The Empire Hotel and Country Club which is probably among the world's most opulent hotels with tiger eye gemstones (PHP 58-80 per carat) adorning the rails of its grand staircase and an assortment of semi-precious stones paving its floors, while its toilets are lighted by gold plated switches and its cavernous fully airconditioned halls are adorned by massive marble columns.
The hotel is huge with more than 400 rooms, a man-made saltwater lagoon, olympic-sized pools, an 18-hole golf course, and a hefty price tag for a night's stay that is almost the average annual family income of other less fortunate ASEAN countries.
The Masjid Omar Ali Saiffudien which is known as Brunei's Star is considered as one of the most beautiful mosques in the Asia Pacific, and Brunei is so wealthy that it can afford cover its main dome with pure gold.
It was there where we encountered Lucky Mel, a freelance licensed tourist guide who led us inside the fully airconditioned mosque and offered a tour of Kampong Ayer (the water village which gave birth to Brunei) for BND 20 per person which is cheap compared to published commercial rates so we took it.
The remnants of Magellan's fleet docked here in 1521 after escaping the wrath of Lapulapu and as Lucky Mel picked on his nose, he told of a great fire that almost wiped out Kampong Ayer and how the government rebuilt the wooden houses on stilts with modern ones to keep the residents from moving, the water taxi gliding from new settlements to the oldest in Tamoi to the mangroves in a futile search for crocodiles and monkeys, passing through the reflection of the gleaming golden dome of the Sultan's palace and the equally palatial residence of the Crown Prince which is being renovated, and back to the Brunei River and the USD 100 million Sungai Kebun Bridge.
We parted with Lucky Mel near the bus station, us to The Mall to shop for nuts and Old Town Coffee to take home before one final dinner at the Gadong Night Market, he to the widow he married and her two sons who share cars.
We did travel to Brunei for work and met with PhilWEN over egg tarts and cheesecake, had our 15-minute audience with the ASEAN Committee on Women to sell our work on addressing unpaid care work, and got invited for two hours of reflection and visioning with our government counterparts.
My last photo in Brunei is at a gallery displaying children's artwork against smoking, something I enjoyed but promise to forever quit when I turn 50 next year.
Ambuyat is Brunei's national dish and I have learned a long time ago that hotels are not the right place to explore the local cuisine but with the residents themselves, in our case Judy Morente and her husband who took us to a place patronized by locals where we had our best meal ever in Brunei.
Ambuyat is actually a feast where the main dish is pot of thick sago paste extracted from the rumbia tree/sago palm, harvested from the pot with a V-shaped bamboo fork called candas then lightly drenched in a cacah dip and eaten with a variety of side dishes or ulam-ulaman which for our dinner were beef jerky (tapa) and deep-fried cow lungs, a kaldereta-like beef dish (rendang?), sauteed fern shoots, fried fish and slices of fresh vegetable.
Brunei is the second smallest ASEAN member state in terms of land area at 5,765 suare kilometers but with the least population at 5.4 million people, and the 5th richest country in the world and therefore considered as a developed nation, so rich that its citizens do not pay any taxes and social services are free and of high quality.
It has so much surplus money that Brunei built The Empire Hotel and Country Club which is probably among the world's most opulent hotels with tiger eye gemstones (PHP 58-80 per carat) adorning the rails of its grand staircase and an assortment of semi-precious stones paving its floors, while its toilets are lighted by gold plated switches and its cavernous fully airconditioned halls are adorned by massive marble columns.
The hotel is huge with more than 400 rooms, a man-made saltwater lagoon, olympic-sized pools, an 18-hole golf course, and a hefty price tag for a night's stay that is almost the average annual family income of other less fortunate ASEAN countries.
The Masjid Omar Ali Saiffudien which is known as Brunei's Star is considered as one of the most beautiful mosques in the Asia Pacific, and Brunei is so wealthy that it can afford cover its main dome with pure gold.
It was there where we encountered Lucky Mel, a freelance licensed tourist guide who led us inside the fully airconditioned mosque and offered a tour of Kampong Ayer (the water village which gave birth to Brunei) for BND 20 per person which is cheap compared to published commercial rates so we took it.
The remnants of Magellan's fleet docked here in 1521 after escaping the wrath of Lapulapu and as Lucky Mel picked on his nose, he told of a great fire that almost wiped out Kampong Ayer and how the government rebuilt the wooden houses on stilts with modern ones to keep the residents from moving, the water taxi gliding from new settlements to the oldest in Tamoi to the mangroves in a futile search for crocodiles and monkeys, passing through the reflection of the gleaming golden dome of the Sultan's palace and the equally palatial residence of the Crown Prince which is being renovated, and back to the Brunei River and the USD 100 million Sungai Kebun Bridge.
We parted with Lucky Mel near the bus station, us to The Mall to shop for nuts and Old Town Coffee to take home before one final dinner at the Gadong Night Market, he to the widow he married and her two sons who share cars.
We did travel to Brunei for work and met with PhilWEN over egg tarts and cheesecake, had our 15-minute audience with the ASEAN Committee on Women to sell our work on addressing unpaid care work, and got invited for two hours of reflection and visioning with our government counterparts.
My last photo in Brunei is at a gallery displaying children's artwork against smoking, something I enjoyed but promise to forever quit when I turn 50 next year.
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