KUCHING: From ‘umai’ to organic rice, traditional beaded accessories to palm sugar lollipops, homestays from all over the state had the opportunity to showcase unique products from their respective areas at the 2019 Homestay Conference Carnival.
One such participant, Zahrah Jam, 48, who manages Homestay Senau with her family, was met by New Sarawak Tribune at the carnival at Plaza Merdeka here, yesterday.
“Homestay Senau is located in Oya, Mukah. So, most of our products are based on sea produce,” she said, gesturing towards the array of goods on display at her booth.
Among them were ‘umai’ (raw fish in a mix of chillies, onions, salt and lime juice), jellyfish with chilli and lime, ‘sambal petai’, squid ‘keropok’, and more.
“Most of the villagers in Kampung Senau are fishermen. We buy the base ingredients like fish from them and then we process them into ‘umai’ and other foods,” explained Zahrah.
She said that they had been operating Homestay Senau since 2003. While they had started with fewer houses in their cluster — around seven — their number had now increased to ten houses.
According to Zahrah, most of their visitors were local, hailing from other districts such as Kuching, and other parts of Sarawak.
Another participant promoting her wares was Netty Kumari Basir, 56, who manages Akal Homestay Pusa in the Betong division with her husband.
Most of her products were derived from three types of trees — nipah palm, coconut tree, and sago palm.
“The nipah palm is so unique because it can be used to make so many different products. It can be made into ‘gula apong’ (palm sugar), salt, and vinegar,” she said, adding that the leaves of the tree can also be used to form roofs for houses.
One of their products was a ‘gula apong’ lollipop — a crowd-pleaser with the younger children.
“We first get the ‘gula apong’ from the nipah palm, then we cook it and when it dries, it hardens into this lollipop. Simple!” Netty explained with a wide smile.
Meanwhile, from the sago palm, she produces sago flour which was sold at her booth alongside ‘kuih sepit’ made from the flour as well.
“We also have coconut oil which we process from the coconut tree,” she pointed out.
Netty said that Akal Homestay Pusa was set up about seven years ago and it now had about 16 members in its cluster.
Moving towards Lawas, Long Semadoh Naseb had a booth displaying their organic rice products.
“Here we have Beras Dari (white rice), Beras Sia (red rice), and Beras Item (black rice),” said Winnie Sipai Martin, 44, who lives around the homestay.
She explained that the rice is grown at Kampung Long Semadoh Naseb and it is better than regular rice because it is 100 per cent organic.
According to Winnie, the red and black varieties of rice had less sugar, while the white rice had the highest amount of sugar in it.
“In terms of low sugar, the Beras Item is the best among the three. This means it is suitable for those with diabetes,” she stated.
Aside from boosting business for homestays, the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry director Suriya Charles Buas said that the 2019 Homestay Conference Carnival also acts as a platform for business-to-business (B2B) networking.
“It also gives participants the chance to engage experts during the conference segment,” he remarked when met at the event yesterday.
The carnival ends today.
