KUCHING: Food entrepreneur Dr Siti Mardinah Abdul Hamid, 69, wants to make the local delicacy linut a more familiar fare in the country, rivalling any instant meal.
The traditional Melanau dish is also known in Sabah and Brunei as ambuyat and in Indonesia as papeda.
It is made by whisking together sago flour with hot boiling water to create the starchy mixture.
On its own, linut is tasteless and is often coupled with condiments and side dishes, such as sambal belacan, vegetables or fish in gravy, which gives the dish a spicy, tangy kick.
Siti Mardinah said her ready-to-eat "Linut Segera" required less than five minutes of preparation.
"There are three packs in every cup of 'Linut Segera', which are the linut powder, linut water and sambal. All you need to do is pour the linut powder and linut water in a cup and quickly stir hot boiling water to combine the mixture.
"After that, stir in the sambal paste, which is made without belacan, and it's ready to be eaten. You can eat it practically anywhere as long as you have hot water available."
She started selling traditionally-prepared linut on weekends at the Satok night market, and was surprised to see her product selling like hot cakes.
Siti Mardinah, who is a lecturer at the Faculty of Business Management in Universiti Teknologi Mara (Samarahan campus), spent more than seven years of research before launching her product last month.
Today, the mother of three processes more than 200 orders daily from her home here in Kampung Lintang, with the help of part-time workers who do most of the work manually.
Her orders come from all over Sarawak and even Brunei.
Siti Mardinah plans to open her own factory to meet the rising demand for "Linut Segera" and introduce more condiments.
"I plan to produce 'Linut Segera Special' with yam leaves and also kimchi, which, hopefully, can attract more youth to taste linut.
"I also have plans to produce variations for children with flavours such as strawberry, pandan, chocolate or gula apong (palm sugar)," she added.