Walking Walking Find Food - Mata Mata

Mata Mata Drink/Dessert

125 kilometres from the capital lies Kg. Toporoi, my weekend gateway from the city life with one aim - to taste and savour a local delicacy, the mata mata.

Mata mata is a term for a local delicacy which made up of young rice grain mixed with young coconut water/its flesh. Mata mata can be served either chilled and excellent for afternoon drink or dessert after meal.

Fresh young pandan leaves could be added into the mata mata drink to give aromatic smell to the drink. The mata mata can be prepared a couple of hours earlier to allow the rice grains to get softer before eating it.

Preparation for the mata mata from hill paddy (known locally as tidong) is quite a simple process. A bunch of young paddy grain (still in its husks/stalk) are harvested manually from the paddy field.

Young paddy in the field which will be harvested to make the mata.

After the grains are separated from its stalks, the husked paddy grains are fried for a good 3-4 minutes in a hot pan to ensure there are cooked for consumption. Next, the paddy grains are pounded in a traditional pounding hole or lesung to get rid the husks from the rice.

A woman seen here pounding paddy grain using a lesung

Ready to mix with coconut water, this is the mata mata.

Adding all the ingredients in for a mata mata drink.

Now that we have all the ingredients, we are ready to make a mata mata drink.
1. 2-3 spoonful of cooked and pounded young rice
2. 500-1000 litre of young coconut water and coconut flesh
3. 1 spoonful of sugar to taste.

*The drink can be kept in the refrigerator to last for a couple of days. Walla!!.

** Note: Walking Walking Find Food is a direct translation from the Malay words Jalan Jalan Cari Makan, a popular local TV program in Malaysia.