Taste of Place

Episode 8

Homecoming

[00:00:00] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: A taste of place, of time, of space, of memory. How do we find a way to belong, a way to look to the past and to build a future. My name is Dr. Anna Sulan Masing, and I hope to answer those questions as we explore taste and memory throughout this series. Welcome to Taste of Place, a Whetstone Radio Collective podcast.

[00:00:28] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Ba’ Kapit nama aku Anna Sulan, tauka Anna Sulan anak James Jemut. In Kapit my name is Anna Sulan, or Anna Sulan child of James Jemut. Or if you knew me as a kid, it is simply Sulan. Returning home from those in diaspora often feels like moving through a space that shimmers and shifts. For me, my [00:01:00] name changes. The way you pronounce Anna is different, and even then, I'm very rarely known as Anna or Anna Kapit.

[00:01:11] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: And through this change of a name, the words that sit differently on the tongues of family, I become someone different. But as you shift into this identity linked so closely to childhood, it can be jarring with your surrounding. We remember the homeland as a space that is static, fixed in time, but of course it changes new roads and shops spring up and your favorite ice cream place closes down.

[00:01:39] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: The longhouse is cable TV and everyone is wearing H&M. Home is both familiar and alienating. In this episode, Homecoming, we travel to Kapit, a market town in Sarawak, Malaysia on the island of Borneo. It is the nearest town to where my family's farm and longhouse are, and therefore [00:02:00] has become the answer of convenience for every minority's favorite question:

[00:02:04] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: where are you from? We came here to speak to pepper farmers, to take part in long house activities and to explore centers of food like the Kapit marketplace and a Laksa cafe, all in order to paint a vivid picture of life in Sarawak. I also came to reconnect with home to find belonging after my father's death and the separation that Covid enforced and remind myself why and how Sarawak pepper captured my heart and imagination.

[00:02:35] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: On the streets of Kapit, Iban is the language of the people. For me, listening to Iban is the most comforting thing I can think of. The rhythms of the words reside deep within me, a memory of my childhood. I no longer speak Iban, bar the essentials: makai, ngirup, dudok – eat, drink, sit. And importantly: udah, ‘already’, because no matter [00:03:00] how much I want to eat everything, there will come to a point where I can't fit anymore in.

[00:03:05] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: And to say udah makai is much better than saying I'm too full or I can't have anymore. Everywhere I go people will ask if I still speak Iban, especially if they remember me as Sulan – aku enda nemu bejku Iban agi, I reply; I no longer speak Iban. The sentence brings me sorrow and longing. It is my nostalgia wrapped up in words, but I am always amazed at how much I am accepted and never questioned. I am treated like I am from Kapit. I am always Iban. Existing is both insider and outsider. In my PhD I wrote about how the Iban traverse navigates space in a way that is without boundaries, but rather as an expansion, and that home can grow.

[00:03:53] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: That migration is not simply leaving one space for another, but that home is part of the diaspora. [00:04:00] This is an idea of expanding spaces and opens up the possibility of a dialogue between spaces. The Iban longhouse has an external veranda, a communal area that spans the entire longhouse, the village, it is called the Tanju.

[00:04:16] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: This approach to space means that no matter how far you travel, you never actually step off the tanju. The anthropologist, Soda Ryoji, described the Ibans as 'agents on the move', and the sense of agency and movement has allowed me to hold multiple identities in one hand, allowing them to exist together. I don't exist in a liminal space.

[00:04:40] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: I'm not caught between two places or culture. I am just Iban and Sarawakian and British, and a New Zealander and a Londoner. Although it has been agreed by several aunties over a morning coffee that I look more Iban than white, so that is the official status. [00:05:00] This trip home was complex as I hadn't been back since 2019 when I visited with Mandy. During that time, a pandemic had happened, which took my uncle and aunt who lived in Kapit as well as my father, and so I was navigating a space of family and childhood without the usual anchors.

[00:05:19] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: What is home without the people that make it? But it was also the sharpest realization of how quickly changes happen. It might have felt like the world had stopped because of Covid 19, and because I hadn't been able to visit, but of course, market towns in the Borneo interior will continue to grow, just like my neighborhood in London changed in those three years. To get to Kapit, you fly from Kuching, the capital of Sarawak to Sibu, a small riverside city, then a three hour express boat to Kapit, which is like a large bus going upriver. People bring an assortment of goods to bring home, which are [00:06:00] piled up in the aisles or on the roof of the boat. I've always come to Kapit via boat. As a child, I remembered they would play Chinese action films in the cabin, and I was fascinated by the stunts. You look out the window and you see the longhouses passing by.

[00:06:15] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: With each year, more and more long houses would be built with concrete that were then painted in bright colors with less and less long boats and more compact speedboats at the jetty as time went on. This time we drove. I tried to organize an express boat, but they don't really run anymore, not since the road was built in 2020.

[00:06:38] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: It sounds silly, but the shock of not being able to take the river really shook my understanding of Kapit and home and of my relationship with Sarawak. It is a space where rivers are the lifeblood, the central identity of life. I know how to get back to my family farm by the river. Kapit sits on the Rejang River, which flows all the [00:07:00] way to the South China Sea.

[00:07:01] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: You go up the Raja River, turn right at the turn right at the Belah, then Mejong and finally into Majau – where the farm sits, the mouth of the Majau River. Because of this new road, traveling on the river will become a thing of the past, but driving through the landscape, I saw new things. I saw farms dotted with pepper, which were bigger closer to Sibu.

[00:07:22] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: I saw farms that had a more commercial organization than the longhouse farms I was used to seeing, which seemed to be growing cabbages, and the roads were busy. When we got to Kapit, new shops lined the waterfront, expanding the once small downtown strip that used to run from Aunty Peh’s laksa shop across the express boat terminal, the petrol station, the market, and to the end with my dad's favorite noodle shop.

[00:07:47] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Now there is a new part, many more blocks of shops, and the express boat terminal is no longer the hub of activity.

[00:07:57] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: To assist me with my interviews on this trip, [00:08:00] I had a great Kapit team. 

[00:08:02] Adriana: *introduction* 

[00:08:04] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: *introduction* 

[00:08:08] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Adriana works for my cousin, Kudi, and Florence is actually my cousin as well. 

[00:08:12] Ramlie: I am Ramlie from Kapit. 

[00:08:15] Labang: Hello. My name's Labang. I stay in Kapit. *speaking in Iban* 

[00:08:22] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Ramlie works with Kudi too, and Labang is a local counselor who is also related to me through my grandfather's side of the family.

[00:08:30] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Writing about food ways is more than just writing about how ingredients are farmed and the route it takes to get to your plate. It is also about the people along the way who farm it, process it, ship it, sell it, cook it, and of course eat it. In Kuching, the night before this trip, I ate with friends at a restaurant called Roots.

[00:08:50] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: The chefs had t-shirts that said "no farmers, no food" on the backs. Because of the way the open kitchen was positioned, their backs were to the dining room [00:09:00] most of the time, and they were framed at the top of the dining room behind the bar, so no farmers, no food was a focal point. We were also back in Sarawak for Harvest Festival, Gawai, which is when the indigenous people celebrate the rice harvest.

[00:09:15] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: This is the equivalent of New Year's Eve where you see out the old harvest and look towards planting a new harvest and welcome in a new year. There is anticipation and looking to the future. And that first night in Kapit, we went to a Gawai of a family friend. There was drinking of tuak – the local rice wine – and eating wild boar. Offerings to gods were made and a traditional chant was done by the bards.

[00:09:42] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: This is the telling of the Gawai story and three male bards spent the whole night telling the story in chant. I was asked to dance, to ngajat, which I did very badly. Like the Iban language. I used to be quite good, but at the very least, I give everyone a [00:10:00] laugh at my attempts. Many people have a story to tell me about when I was a child.

[00:10:05] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Selfies were taken and uploaded to Facebook. My Iban name is most used, and I get introduced as my father's child, Anna Sulan anak Jemut. It is so deeply emotional to be back in the fold and the chaotic Gawai festivities that are so familiar to me. And I begin to think I started this project as an excuse to come back and drink tiger beer in the hot, hot Kapit heat, and be swept up in the crowd of people.

[00:10:31] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: And maybe that is the point of this. Observing the scene, I'm reminded yet again that these are the people that grow the pepper that seasons my life, our lives. The paper that allows me to wax poetic on this podcast about systems and flavors and time and space, it all starts from here, from the people celebrating before me. The next day, we headed out on the road again to Labang's longhouse. [00:11:00] Longhouses are the central hub of community life in Sarawak. They are where all the families in the village live, commune, and rest inbetween working their family owned farmland. We visited Labang's longhouse. He is related to me via my grandfather and his wife is related to me via my grandmother.

[00:11:17] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Therefore, this long house is considered family. The night before the trip it had rained heavily, thunder and lightning, directly overhead. The river highways of Rejang and Baleh were more awash with soil from its bank than usual, and the rush of new water in the system stirs up the river bed. Under the jungle's undergrowth, you can catch glimpses of the clay-like soil that is dominant in the mountainous landscape in the Kapit area, but it's the river after the rain that really lets you see what the soil is like here, A thick red, yellow, brown.

[00:11:53] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: The water has the color and viscosity of a frothed up Teh Tarik, which is a milky tea, poured back and [00:12:00] forth between cups to mix. And the smaller Tribune rivers, which are also looking less clear than usual dark gray slates of rock interrupt the flow of the water. The drive is steep and hilly. The road is based on old timber trails that have been tarmacked over until they haven't, and we're bumping along current timber trails.

[00:12:21] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: It is a little hairy at times, but it's a pathway deep into the interior. Pepper Gardens dot the hillsides, often on precariously steep slopes. I can't even imagine how they're accessed and they sit remotely from anything else. Little squares of sticks encased, green binds. We stopped at the farm of a relative of mine, Subang, who is part of Labang's longhouse, although she predominantly lives at her small farm, a 20 minute walk down the road from the Long house. We crowded into the front room of her farmhouse. Six in the group with me, plus her husband, her daughter, son-in-law, and her grandson. The [00:13:00] farm cats come in to say hello, stretch themselves in front of the fan or approach each of us for scratches. At one point, one little gray cat became very interested in the microphone nuzzling up to it.

[00:13:12] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: The farm is mainly pepper farming, and then fruits like pineapple and vegetables such as tapioca and long bean. There is fishing in the river in a small river nearby, which is almost every day, and hunting for wild boar. They also have padi -- rice fields, which need daily care. How often do you go hunting?

[00:13:33] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Almost every day. Almost every day. Almost every day. Almost every day. Okay. And fishing as well. Where is the stream near close here? Small Ofk. Mm-hmm.

[00:13:47] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: and fishing every day as well? Almost every day. Almost every. Some of the rice, vegetables, and fruits that are grown are sold to the timber camp not far from the farm. This is the main source of income for Subang's family. [00:14:00] She lived with hunting and fishing this only for daily life. So that's the fishing and the hunting is not for selling just for daily life now, but the rice and the vegetables and the fruit, she can sell.

[00:14:14] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: She can't sell it on the camp. And she does do the pepper, but the pepper, she doesn't do so much now because it takes a lot of time and the price is not so good right now. And she has about 60 vines, pepper vines, Is that what she was saying? Hundred. A hundred. Okay. Okay. Adriana translated my questions to Subang and her family.

[00:14:37] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: The answers were not straightforward as farming is very rarely a linear process, and the questions were discussed in depth with Labang and Adriana helping with translating it all to me. This exchange mirrors the other conversations I've had over the years with Iban farmers. There is always lively discussions as notes are compared and a complex picture is painted.

[00:14:59] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: It is very [00:15:00] fun and feels slightly chaotic. Everyone has an opinion and it is wonderful to hear all the different thoughts. In summary, the situation with Subang's farm in June, 2022 is that they aren't producing a lot of pepper at the moment as the prices have dropped. Therefore, it isn't worth tending to a large pepper garden, which needs daily attention.

[00:15:20] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: As Labang explains, you can't leave pepper vines for a week. Kapit is the closest collection center. It takes about a week to process the pepper, to get it ready to take to town. So the collection center for pepper is in Kapit so how often would you take the pepper from here to Kapit? 

[00:15:38] Subang: Once for one month, because it's so many process before they sail to Kapit.

[00:15:44] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: It was explained to me that the pepper can be stored until the prices rise again. Subang and her family currently only make black pepper. White pepper fetches a higher price but is much harder to process and takes more time. As we walk to the long [00:16:00] house, we walk past Subang's pepper drying in the hot midday sun.

[00:16:10] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: We all then made our way to the long house where a mirring was performed. This is an offering ceremony to the gods. After visiting the Pepper Farm, we've come to the Long House and we're just setting up a mirring. Mr is doing the mirring, so he's putting together all the little bits. The purpose for this was to welcome us to the Long House, bless the spirits.

[00:16:35] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: It consists of three types of rice divided into eight portions, popped, cooked rice cakes, glutenous rice, then smoked banana leaves, eight eggs and blood of a chicken mixed with tuak, the rice wine. This is assembled in a shallow bowl and a live cockerel is waved over the bowl and over all our heads

[00:16:56] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: whilst a blessing is made to the gods. We then had lunch: [00:17:00] we ate beef rendang, which is a dry curry, rice, bamboo shoots, and chicken broth cooked with a local aubergine or eggplant, which I can still taste so clearly as I say this. The aubergine is orange in color, sweet, but with this bitter ending and aftertaste, I love it.

[00:17:21] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: After lunch, we headed to the river where a new fishing program has been established with the aim to build up fish reserves to sustain the long house and neighboring long houses and farms. This river is considered a virgin river as there are no other long houses or dwellings up river. It is incredibly beautiful and clear, but extremely noisy.

[00:17:41] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: You hear the fish coming out to eat and the buzz of the insects is almost deafening. The next morning we go for breakfast at a noodle cafe where they make noodles by hand, which are all sitting freshly made on a back table. This place looks exactly the same as it did when I was a [00:18:00] child. There are cabinets running the length of the shop with knickknacks on display.

[00:18:05] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: There are photos of the family who own it, plus people from town, including my dad. There are posters of the protected Sarawakian jungle animals on the wall that I'm very sure I remember from when I was five. There is a pepper shaker of ground white Sarawak pepper on each table. I order a kopi, which is hot coffee with sweetened condensed milk -- it's important to stir the milk in to get the rich sweet flavors, and a plate of fried dry mee or noodles with a bit of gravy, which has a deep, smoky flavor from the wok.

[00:18:41] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Here I speak with Robert, who's been a family friend for years. He worked for my dad and is in local politics. 

[00:18:48] Robert Liban: Hello, my name is Robert Liban. I'm from Kapit. 

[00:18:52] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Robert spoke to me about a fishing program, the Tangan System, which is about environmental and indigenous knowledge preservation. [00:19:00] It is being rolled out across the area for the indigenous communities this far upriver.

[00:19:04] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: As I have mentioned earlier in the season, pepper farming is part of a farming system and farming culture, and as Subang spoke about the day before on her farm, there are things that the longhouse farm or hunt that are just for the village. What Robert explains to me is how this fishing program is both about sustenance for the river communities and to protect the indigenous fish.

[00:19:26] Robert Liban: This tangan may be good for the local and rural people to maintain, sustain the life aquatic in the river. In Kapit, they have so many ous fish, maybe like al

[00:19:43] Robert Liban: Fish on the bat, the rock. We hope this system, my generation, the cannot with, with Labang with. 

[00:19:53] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Although freshwater fish are now grown in ponds and farmed, river fish are most desired as they feed on [00:20:00] wild fruits that fall into the river. The empurau fish is the most sought after, which is currently fetching up to 600 Malaysian ringgit, or just over £100 per kilo.

[00:20:11] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Other indigenous fish are Semah, Tengadak and Labang. It is only recently that in-depth studies of fish in the area have been done as it's such a difficult area to access. Kapit fish is so sought after that restaurants in other towns and cities cite the fact they have Kapit fish on their menus. No one is allowed to fish within the area of the designated fishing programs,

[00:20:35] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: to allow the fish stock to mature. It has been a very successful program and has run mainly up river, particularly around my family farm area where the water is very clean, which is good for the fish. After breakfast, we went to the Terasang Market, Kapit's focal point. It was pouring with rain. The heavy, heavy tropical rain that is only seen to be believed [00:21:00] as it poured down the side of the building that the market is in,

[00:21:03] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: hitting tin roofs. The market is a two story building. The ground floor with the sides open to the elements is where the market is housed with shops above. The market has everything you could want for the household from produce to a wet market, plastic bags and items for blessings to the gods. As we walked around the market, I met a number of people who knew my dad.

[00:21:26] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: One person we met as soon as we entered was a woman from Majau, the same river my family longhouse is from. Her stool was set up with tables on three sides around her. Her glasses perched on her nose and her gray hair loosely tied in a ponytail. She is of my grandmother's generation and a few inches shorter than me.

[00:21:44] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: In the spirited conversation in rush of Iban and attempts to translate, I didn't catch her name, but she told me she'd met my sister Rachel and that she missed my dad, although originally from Majau River, she now lives in Kapit. I asked her how often she comes to the market and what she [00:22:00] sells. 

[00:22:01] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: *speaking Iban

[00:22:09] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: She comes to the market every day. The produce she has is from farmers who sell her their goods. On her stall was ginger cucumber, Dayak, aubergine, the eggplant, which we used to eat in the day before, but an array of different types from orange and yellow to greens and purples. She also has mushrooms, chilies, tuak, and items for using in a mirring blessing, much needed at this time of the year for the Galway festivities. And a bark, which acts as a natural citronella. So if you burn it, it smells. Is this part of like offerings as well? No, no. Just make it the way that the, The infect, Oh. Keep away at the insects. I see. Oh, very good. . Okay. Get away. The back and the bad spirits.

[00:22:55] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Insects and the bad spirits the same thing. Yes. . We spoke [00:23:00] to another seller who also comes every day and gets the farm, produces from long houses in the local area. Her store had similar things, including pineapple and lemongrass, and she explained to me how to make kassam babi - fermented pork. The recipe got a little lost in translation, but the point was she had all that was needed to make it and that it was an important dish to know and to make.

[00:23:21] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Most of the stalls are owned by women in this part of the market where produce is sold. I saw cangkok manis, the local name for a leafy vegetable grown throughout Southeast Asia. I really love it. It is usually stir ride with a little bit of salt to take out the bitterness. I also spotted my absolute favorite, mid midin.

[00:23:39] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: This is an indigenous fern and it only lasts a few days after harvesting, so you need to eat it quick. It is usually quick fried with garlic or with belcan - fermented shrimp paste. On some stalls. There were also produce for more commercialized farms closer to Sibu, such as cabbage, a vegetable I don't remember seeing [00:24:00] last time I was here.

[00:24:01] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: But then I was less forensic about my wandering around the market and previous visits only focusing on what was important to me as anchors of my memory in place. Previously, I would only pick up things I knew I could only get here and bring them back to Kuching. The market is set up into long strips of stalls,

[00:24:19] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: tables creating walkways that run from riverside up. The market feels chaotic, although a little less than previously. The rain keeping people away and Covid restrictions had only just lifted and everyone was still feeling their way through. I felt aware that people were looking. We were a group moving through.

[00:24:39] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: I had on headphones with my mic out in front of me, and then there was a recognition from people of who I was. I stood out. But I think when you do go back home, you always do. The way you dress and navigate space is always going to be different from a local. The smell of the rain, the earthy aroma of vegetables, [00:25:00] the whiff of the fish across the other side of the market, and the smell of frying oil with hints of sweetness from the dessert sections in the center of the market all mingle together.

[00:25:11] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: It is a lot of sensory information, but I relish it. We wandered over to the middle section where the hot food is. It is mainly sweet treats, like pandan pancakes with desiccated coconut or Iban fried dough snacks that have a pleasing crunch. And as the rain continued to pour and we contemplated what to do next, we made our way to the fish section.

[00:25:34] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: So what fish are these ones? This come from Fish. The name can the same with my name. . Yes. . 

[00:25:45] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Labang Fish is a white fish with reddish pink fins and tails that can be between four to 10 kilos. This one is 700 for kilo. One kilo. Wow. This one's at the, [00:26:00] So that's like the catfish. Yeah. And it's stills still breathing.

[00:26:11] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: And rivers, so they're still breathing. Oh dear. One of the fish has absolutely moved and now on the catfish table, and they've fallen off . They wiggled themselves off the table behind us in the pouring rain.

[00:26:31] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: The last stop of our tour of Kapit and something I'd been looking forward to since I landed was to the Laksa Cafe at the other end of the old town. The pink walls behind Aunty Peh’s laksa stand beautifully frame her spot and it is where we stop for a late morning lepak before heading home. On the table are little bowls of boiled eggs and all passes of sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves, which aunty Peh is making fresh as we sit.

[00:26:58] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: The start of the interview begins with a [00:27:00] big discussion amongst everyone about how I don't speak Iban anymore.

[00:27:15] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: I tell her I was here in 2019 with Mandy and that she told us about the hundred year old urn for making hot drinks. She doesn't remember, she says she sees a lot of people. Fair enough. Her cafe is always busy. She tells me that she's been cooking for 24 years and she is at the cafe from 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM One side of the cafe is her Laksa cooking area where she makes enough daily for 30 portions.

[00:27:42] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Then there is stand for making drinks and the spot with the parcels of rice are made up. She explained to me that she makes her laksa broth from bought laksa paste which feels like a disappointing fact for me. But this is my nostalgia at play, pointing to a romantic view of local cooking and [00:28:00] cooks. And I realized that over the last decade or so, there have been some really, really good Laksa pastes made.

[00:28:07] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: I bring them back to London every time and look forward to trying whatever new one I find in the supermarket. So why would you make it fresh when you can buy exceptional paste already made? Each kopitiam in Kapit that sells Laksa makes it differently. There is the way you add coconut milk, the ratio of other ingredients, and then there are toppings that are different everywhere.

[00:28:30] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Aunty Peh uses a lot of offal in her laksa, which is very unusual in Sarawak.

[00:28:40] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Back now in London, I make Laksa one evening using my paste I brought back. The packaging is a no nonsense design, white paper with a bird logo and a list of ingredients stuck to the outside of a clear plastic packaging so I can see the rich, deep brown reddish paste. The paste is [00:29:00] pre-made, The noodles are store bought.

[00:29:02] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: I boil water and pour them over the very thin rice noodles, letting them soak till cooked. I bring the paste to a boil with some chicken stock. Then strain it so that all the grainy textures of the thick paste is gone before adding in the coconut milk and gently warming it up, the smells fill the kitchen and the Sarawak pepper that is so key to this paste, make themselves known; woody and aromatic.

[00:29:30] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: I take the noodles out of the water and place them in a deep bowl. I pour the thick gravy like broth over the noodles and add leftover chicken shredded, and squeeze a wedge of lime. And this looks is absolutely delicious. During the ritual of making my favorite dish, one that is so familiar with me, I'm brought back to the tanju, the communal [00:30:00] veranda spanning the long house.

[00:30:04] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: No matter where in the world I travel, I will always be home.

[00:30:13] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: Thank you very much to everyone who helped make this episode in Kapit. It was truly a communal or village project. Thanks especially to my translators, Florence, Ramlie, Adriana, and Labang. I'd like to thank my producer, Catherine Yang, audio editor, Dayana Capulong, researcher Caroline Merrifield and intern Ashley Choi.

[00:30:49] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: I'd also like to thank Whetstone founder Stephen Satterfield, Whetstone Radio Collective executive producer Celine Glasier, sound [00:31:00] engineer Max Kotelchuck, usic director Catherine Yang, managing producer Marvin Yuen, associate producer Quentin Lebeau, production coordinator, Shabnam Ferdowsi, production assistant Maha Sanad and publicist Melissa Haughton.

[00:31:17] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: The music created by Catherine Yang and cover art created by Whetstone Art Director, Alex Bowman. You can learn more about this podcast on WhetstoneRadio.com. On Instagram and Twitter @WhetstoneRadio, on TikTok @WhetstoneMedia and subscribe to our Spotify and YouTube channel, Whetstone Media for more podcast content.

[00:31:40] Dr. Anna Sulan Masing: You can learn more about all things happening at Whetstone, at WhetstoneMedia.com.