From traditional to contemporary, we look at the other side of Sabah culture.
Continuing on from Part 1, we learn about efforts to modernise traditional indigenous cuisine through fine dining. Raphael Jay Peter Lee is head chef of OITOM, a restaurant in Kota Kinabalu that aims to redefine what Sabahan cuisine is. But it turns out that instilling traditional cultural values into your restaurant requires more than just a menu change.
Resources and References
A History of Malaysia (2016), Barbara Watson Andaya, Leonard Y. Andaya
Borneo: The History of an Enigma (2026), Olivier Hein
Druce, Stephen C and Nani Suryani Haji Abu Bakar. 2023. Brunei and the World Since 1984. Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Brunei, pp. 100-117. eds. Ooi Keat Gin and Victor T. King. London: Routledge.
The Making of Sabah, 1865-1941: The Dynamics of Indigenous Society, University of Malaya Press, 2000
Titas Chakraborty, Matthias van Rossum, Slave Trade and Slavery in Asia—New Perspectives, Journal of Social History, Volume 54, Issue 1, Fall 2020, Pages 1–14, https://doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shaa004
James Warren, The Sulu Zone 1768–1898: The Dynamics of External Trade, Slavery, and Ethnicity in the Transformation of a Southeast Asian Maritime State (Singapore, 2007)
Barbara Andaya, To Live as Brothers: Southeast Sumatra in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Honolulu, 1993).
Credits
Hosted by Dr Noby Leong and Philip Gibson
Produced by Dr Noby Leong and Philip Gibson
Sound Design by Jack Barr
Satay? Okay! is produced by Kopi Productions Limited and supported by the Golden Chopsticks Scholarship, by the Oxford Cultural Collective Trust
