TERENGGANU BREAKFAST- PULUT

In spite of the high uric acid content, pulut or glutinous rice (sticky rice to some) features prominently in the life of Terengganu folks. Villagers in Terengganu, when going to a kenduri or a big feast will say they are going to "makan pulut". Probably this is because most of the time there will be pulut kuning, known in Terengganu as nasi kunyit featured prominently at the the do. If it is a wedding and there is a bersilat (the Malay art of self-defence) in the program, chances are the silat will be silat pulut (show silat) where nobody gets hurt. More so if it is a solo silat exponent.
In Terengganu, pulut is never masak (cooked). It is always tanok. The subtleties escaped me but rest assured that all pulut are well-cooked and sticky.

For breakfast, I can remember two kinds of pulut: pulut tawo (plain unsweetened glutinous rice) and pulut cawan. Pulut cawan, as you can see from the picture above which I stole from Am-flora's blog, is a catering manager's delight. The serving is somewhat uniform as if scooped using a cup (cawan). The pulut in the picture is from Johor and the topping is serunding. Pulut cawan in Terengganu usually has beras goreng (toasted rice) or sambal ikan (grated fish floss) on top .
Both pulut cawan and pulut tawo might have grated coconut on them too and then they have a new name: pulut gaol nyo. Sometimes they are eaten with ikang singgang goreng or ikang kering.
Over at the Thai border towns, where pulut is cheaper, the pulut is sold in a very generous portion (almost twice the size of Terengganu's nasi dagang packet) and eaten with fried chicken. This would lead to extreme drowsiness and the eater is advised not handle heavy machineries for the next six hours.

Labels: pulut cawan, pulut tawo, silat pulut