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Pinongian…the fugu cuisine of the Kadazandusun?

When the Japanese eat Fugu or commonly known as pufferfish meat, they say it makes them closer to heaven.  The numbness and tingling effect from eating fugu is due to the tetrodotoxin subtance that the pufferfish has especially in the organs.  Minute amounts of tetrodotoxin is lethal.  In such a case make sure your online life insurance covers for food poisoning.

Perhaps our traditional Pinongian also can be considered as heavenly…at least to me  that is..   Pinongian is a local delicacy of preserved fresh water fish usually the river-borne ones.   The preservative used is the flesh of the seeds from the pangium edule tree known locally as the Pangi tree or in malay – Kepayang or Payang.

The preservative quality of the seed is very potent that eating it right out of the seed can induce nausea, vomitting and even death.  It is mainly used as rat poison!  According to my grandmother, before you can use the seeds of the pangi for preservatives you need to soak the seeds first then smoke-dry them.

The pangi so effective in preserving that not even a hint of rotten smell is detected…in fact there’s only a faint nutty smell and not even the fishy smell.  Despite the toxic properties….the taste of pinongian after cooking is truely heavenly.

Before cooking

After cooking