Ulam - Salad Herbs of Malaysia

Wan Hassan, Dr Wan Embong. Ulam: Salad Herbs of Malaysia. Masbe SDN BHD: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2010. 4to lg HC 254pp (foreword by Dato' Mak Kok) VG/VG

WAN HASSAN, Dr Wan Embong (1947 - 2020)

Ulam - Salad Herbs of Malaysia.

Kuala Lumpur : Masbe Sdn. Bhd., January  2010.  First Edition.  Printed by Percetakan Jiwabaru Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia.

Quarto  (310x275mm) pictorial dust jacket, green, gilt lettered and stamped boards, 254pp.  Foreword by Dato' Mak Kok, photography by Mustaffa Mahmood.

Fine.

Ulam is the Malay word for an edible indigenous herb, vegetable or green that is eaten raw, blanched or boiled with rice as part of a meal and served with a dipping sauce or dressing of sambal belacan (hot chilli pepper-shrimp paste), budu (anchovy sauce) or cincaluk (brine shrimp sauce).  Traditionally more than one Ulam can be served in a meal.  An Ulam can also be mixed with chilli, shallots, coconut, dried prawns and lime juice and served as kerabu, a mixed salad.  Dishes such as Laksa or Gado Gado are considered Ulam.

The opening chapters broadly describe the process of making ulam, the ulam sauces and the overall nutritional benefits of eating ulam as part of a Malay diet.  The main part of the book is an A-Z of ulam ingredients.  Each ulam ingredient is pictured, named in Malay, Chinese, English and botanically, and described before their particular use in ulam or kerabu is described.  The nutritive values of each ulam ingredient are also provided in detail.

Some ingredients will be familiar to Western readers, most will not.   Relevant to many aspects of Chinese medicine wherein food is considered medicine.  Although there are no specific recipes, the introduction taken together with the detail for each ingredient will enable any reasonable cook to prepare ulam from any of the ingredients described.

Dr Wan Hassan was a civil servant and researcher and director at the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute.


An exhaustive, beautifully photographed 'coffee-table' reference to one of the traditional mainstays of the Malay cuisine.

Scarce.   An excellent copy.

§  OCLC records only 4 holdings, all in Malaysia.