Buah Dabai

What is Buah Dabai?

Buah Dabai is one of many exotic fruits in Sarawak, known by many natives like mostly Dayak in Sarawak for its own uniqueness. It is commonly known as or-kana - means 'black olive' in Hokkien, but techniquely is not an olive. The Dabai tree can grow up to 21 meters high, its furry leaves are thin and its twigs are covered with golden down. Dabai trees are dioecious (i.e have separate sexes) with male and female trees required for fruiting! Dabai are white colour when immature then turn black when riped. They are oblong in shape like an olive and have thin, edible skin. The yellowish white flesh wraps around a three-angled seed.

If you want to eat Dabai, firstly you must soak the dabai in hot water until they are soft because they are tough as rock to be eaten raw. The yellowish flesh tastes creamy which make it taste different than the other exotic fruits in Sarawak. When eating Dabai, you either can peel their skin or not because eating the skin is a personal preference. For taste, usually the natives prefer either soy sauce or salt when eating Dabai. You can also preserve it just by soaking them with black soy sauce or with coarse salt (without the seed). Dabai fried rice is a specialty dish in Sarawak.

However this is a seasonal fruit and currently it would cost a little bit expensive due to the economy in Malaysia. If you want to travel to Sarawak, make sure you travel around the end of year because people would sell it most of places especially in markets.

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