I’m sure the locals are familiar with this. I called it “o-ka-na” in Hokkien, direct translation in English is “black olive”. The correct name is “dabai” for the natives but how does the Chinese called it? I’m not sure. I know many Foochows(a Chinese dialect group in Malaysia) like this a lot. They usually served them with dark soy sauce.
I called it “o-ka-na” because I saw it for the first time when I’m still a little girl. It’s given to us by my aunt’s boss from Sibu. It’s black in colour and my mom told me it’s a type of olive, so that’s how I invented the name 😛 
Some people don’t like dabai because it has a peculiar taste. Hmm… But I don’t think it tastes strange. Dabai tastes like an olive to me hahahah… Just like those olive on the pizza except it’s a bit more stronger. You do not need to cook it, you just need to soak them in a pot of hot water until soft and they are ready for consumption.
My way of preparing is by boiling a pot of water with salt. After that, soak them and cover the pot with the lid until they are soft. That’s all. I don’t add anything to it. The saltiness of the salt and the flesh of the dabai is heavenly. Yummy… The saltiness is up to you, there is no fixed amount of salt used. I don’t like it with soy sauce(dark soy sauce right?) as it’s very messy and the taste of the soy sauce is too empowering.
By the way, the inside of the seed can be eaten too. Just “hammer” the seed and eat the inside. Sometimes it tasted a bit raw sometimes it’s tasteless. The texture is a bit like boiled peanuts.
By the way, you can’t get dabai all year round, it only comes out at certain time of the year, I’m not sure when but the last time I had it was December 2006. One more thing, I heard that dabai is very high in cholesterol. Is it true?
i call it kana 🙂
i luv it, always try get sibu uncles to bring it over heh
a good way to describe the taste and texture is to tell people it’s similar to avocado!
i’m not sure if its high in cholesterol, but if it is, it would be good cholesterol, just like olive oil
Crispy, Hmmm… I thought many guys don’t like dabai at least those that I know don’t like them. You are the first one that like it 😛 I’ve never tasted avocado hehehe…
Now I forgot what it’s called because I haven’t go back to S’wak for years already and I never find this thing in KL. Partly because I never look for it because I don’t like the strange taste.
🙂
EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!
Yuck!
Bleargh!
*lol*
My mom loves it. When she buys a bag home, no one competes with her for it. ;D
Neo, you’re from Sarawak? Now then I know. Hahah…
Lux, hahaha… You don’t like it too. I love it 😛
Yeah! Sarawak rocks!
Indeed! 😛 We all live on top of the trees 😛 with elevator inside the trunk.
*slap head*
ohhhhhhhh……my peninsula frens had been explaining for me for years. only now i know that okana = dabai. *slap head again*
i luv having it with soy sauce + sugar. salt salt, sweet sweet. i like to chop the seed into half with big knife and dig the inside out with toothpick. it’s cheap during the season, but quite expensive some other times.
Hahaha… You are so… 😛 I’m thinking that your friends might thought that you are more suaku than them haha… I usually break it with “tumbuk”.