By Adriano David

KUALA TERENGGANU: Bubur lambuk, that savoury porridge, served especially during Ramadan, is always a much sought after dish.

It is not only craved by the Malay community but other races as well, including curious tourists.

People are willing to queue up to get a packed portion of the dish, handed out with compliments by mosques, suraus, hotels, corporate companies, medical centres and even government agencies as part of their corporate social responsibility initiative.

The Primula Beach Hotel here was among those that handed out 150 packets of bubur lambuk at its premises, that were snapped up within minutes by passing motorists.

Hotel human resources manager Zainul Hisham Kassim and his staff distributed the bubur lambuk, prepared by executive sous chef Azizo Ali and his kitchen team.

Basically, the bubur lambuk from Terengganu uses daun pucuk midin (also known as pucuk paku merah), daun kesum and daun kaduk as its ingredients.

“Without the pucuk midin, it will never be bubur lambuk ‘ganu kite’ (our Terengganu).

“Ingredients like longbeans, spinach, carrots and kangkung are excluded as it will not give the distinctive taste of Terengganu,” he said.

Among the condiments include rice, ikan selayang or lolong or kembung, ikan bilis, santan, red onions, garlic, ginger, sweet potato, asam keping, black pepper, kerisik or nyior sugar, budu, salt, flavoured powder, lime and jeruk.

“The dish is cooked until it becomes a well-mixed porridge and is kept in a claypot to be served piping hot during the breaking of fast.

“It is said that just a bowl of very good bubur lambuk is enough to whet your appetite and fill your tummy as a wholesome meal,” said Zainul Hisham.