One of the best things about traveling is falling in love with the people you meet, the places you visit and the culture and heritage one can experience. This is exactly what I felt when I visited Sarawak in May 2009. It has been a while since I visited Sarawak, and so to say, it is only now that I have decided to write about it to give this blog a different taste of culture. So watch out for more stories in the coming days/weeks ahead.

Visiting one of the featured indigenous houses in Sarawak Cultural Village, I expected to feel and taste multi-ethnic and multi-cultural Sarawak--and I am not disappointed. This is in Melanau house, one of the major ethnic groups of Sarawak. Each house features the architecture and way of living--and there are people actually residing in them. Yes, the SCV is a living museum.

While checking on the rooms of the house, which is more like a traditional wooden Filipino house, a sweet aroma invited my sensitive olfactory sense. They are cooking up something--literally--and it is called Love Letters.

Of course, I did not let this pass. I am someone who would always want to try something new--and this reminds me of that funny and tragic experience of trying out my first Malay dish (but I will reserve that later).

Love letters or kuih sepit is a sweet crunchy snack made out of batter mixture of water, eggs, sugar, and flour--yeah something like a pancake. This reminds me of our very own barquillos, though it is a little thicker and harder. One thing though that makes it unique is the engravings on the surface which was formed because of the engraved design of the rounded metal plates.

So in Sarawak, you do not read love letters. You eat them!

The pictures will tell us how this is cooked?

Love letters (kuih sepit) is being cooked over charcoal with the use of tong-like cooking gadget with rounded plates.  The batter is pressed against two facing rounded plates.

Batter mixture is poured over the flat plates.

These are baked on charcoal.

The baked loved letters are then dipped quickly on the water to easily separate it from the pans. It is quickly rolled and allowed to cool.

Visit this blog soon for more post about Sarawak!


Sarawak Cultural Village is located at the foot of Mount Santubong. in Damai, Kuching, Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo. 










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