Sago Grub (Butod), the Most Bizarre Food of Borneo

Known locally as Butod, Sago Grub, or Sago Worm, is a delicacy as well as the most disgusting food in Sabah. Junk food always looks good, but it does ugly things to your body. Sago Grub is the opposite; it’s an ugly but nutritious food. However, it’s a test of bravery to put this wriggling bug into your mouth.

Butod is the larva of the Sago Palm Weevil, a species of snout beetle that consumes sago palm during its infancy. Sago Grub can grow as big as an index finger and looks like a giant maggot. This creamy yellow color and fat worm is rich in protein and sold at US$0.25 each (RM40 – 45 per Kg), quite expensive, but still a hot-selling item in the local market.

According to Dr. Arthur Chung, an insect expert, the adult Sago Palm Weevil is also consumed in Sabah. The rusty red colour of adults is usually grilled or roasted, with the hard and spiny parts and unsavoury guts removed before eating.

The best place to collect sago grubs is in sago palm, as they feed on the starchy pith of decaying sago palm trees, before they mature and transform into beetles after 2 months.

Just chop the sago trunk to look for butod in the spongy interior of the palm. Farmers also deliberately cut some openings in fallen sago trees to attract female weevils to lay eggs inside. They could harvest up to 100 butod per trunk after 1 to 3 months.

Sago Grub is white. I notice it turns yellowish or brownish when exposed to ultraviolet light. Sago grubs can die fairly quickly in direct sunlight and a dry place. Keep them in shade, preferably with pieces of damp sago wood, and they can survive for a few days.

Sago Palm is an important crop of Sabah. Sago Grub is supposed to be a pest because it burrows and eats voraciously into the heart of the sago palm, and causes the tree to die. However, sago grub is a highly sought-after food that brings good money. You can see the statue of Sago Palm Weevil at the entrance of the Rumbia Information Centre. There is no other insect in Sabah that is “commemorated” by such a big statue.

In Sabah, though everyone knows about Sago Grub, not many actually eat this soft-bodied larva. Bugs seem to be doing filthy things all the time. Just look at flies and cockroaches that make people sick. So it might be a bad idea to eat bugs. Anyway, sago grub is very clean because it only feeds on and lives inside sago pith.

According to what I read on the Internet, sago grubs are described as creamy-tasting (like coconut milk) when eaten raw and as tasting like bacon or meat when cooked. I’ve tried eating the live and cooked sago grubs. Now I can tell you that the taste of both is not bad, and I can assure you that sago grub has no funny smell or taste. No, it doesn’t taste like chicken.

Tasting Live Sago Grub

Everyone has some degree of insectophobia. We can’t be friends with bugs. Even if I love to photograph bugs, that doesn’t mean I want to lick them. Anyhow, I always want to eat live sago grubs at least once. I think this is a big achievement, up there with the Medal of Honor.

To eat live sago grub, hold its head with two fingers, because you won’t eat its hard chitinous head, and to avoid its pincer biting you. I squeeze its head to kill it first, so it won’t wriggle in my mouth later, and to suffer a painful death. Then I take a bite at its neck and chew. You can watch the following video if you want to see action:

On the first bite, the juicy worm “bursts” in my mouth, and I can feel its creamy gut flow all over my tongue. OMG, that’s so gross! I just try not to think about it, or I would throw up. The taste of raw butod is like coconut milk with a bit of sweetness. The skin is tough and chewy. Though I don’t think that it’s delicious, the taste isn’t terrible at all. In fact, it’s quite bland.

Cooking Sago Grubs

Swallowing squirming sago grubs may look way too savage. No problem. You can fry, boil, or grill it, then eat it with a knife and fork. Personally, I think cooked butod tastes much better. It’s so easy to cook butod. You will know how after watching the video below:

According to research by Oxford University, Sago Grub contains significantly more vitamins, unsaturated fat, and minerals, but much less cholesterol than other common meats such as chicken and beef. Therefore, Butod is an excellent alternative source of protein.

The simplest way to cook sago grubs is to stir-fry them in a pan until they are totally dry and turn crispy. The first step is to wash and clean the butod with water.

The next step is quite cruel. You tear an opening in their bodies, with a finger or a knife, so they won’t expand and “explode” while being fried. The yellow soft stuff that gushes from the cut is the fat. Butod is packed with oil like a natural energy bar. The locals believe butod oil can thicken their hair.

Then pour all the butod into the pan and stir fry them slowly with a small fire. For better flavor, you may add a pinch of salt or MSG. If you think that is too plain, you can cook them with onions or other vegetables, basically it’s the same as how you cook other meat.

Do you see the oil in the photo above? It’s all from the sago grubs! The smoke smells really, really good and appetizing, like butter.

Researchers describe insects as “micro-livestock” that emits 10 times less greenhouse gas than farting cows. The author of “Bug Chef Extraordinaire”, David George Gordon, says, “Insects are the most valuable, underused and delicious animals in the world.” Eating bugs comes with hundreds of benefits, but people don’t eat bugs for only one reason: it is disgusting. Well, I can give men a superb reason to eat Butod. It’s good for men. *wink wink* If eaten together with patiukan (honeycombs) and tapai (Sabah rice wine), man will certainly experience an incredible aphrodisiacal erection, according to John Seet, the author of The Beliefs & Practices of the Kadazandusun-Murut (ISBN 978-0-7393-8358-2).

After stir-frying, the butod becomes crispy and tastes like fried fish skin, with a hint of prawn, quite nice. It goes well with beer. Dipping it with a bit of cheese would make it more yummy (I haven’t tried that, though).

Sago Festival

If you are interested in munching on some sago grubs, you may visit the Sago Festival (Pesta Rumbia in the local language), which is held in Kuala Penyu annually.

During the festival, tickets for the Sago Buffet are available for a few bucks only. Buy one and you can sample different kinds of sago dishes, including cooked sago grubs.

Many tourists are keen to try sago grubs. The tickets always sell out fast.

Sago grub is also widely eaten in Sarawak, Southeast Asian countries, and Papua New Guinea. Sago grubs are commonly sold in a weekly open-air market (Tamu) in rural areas of Sabah.

However, whenever I want to share a butod with my friends, 9 out of 10 of them would run away, and one would pass out. Actually, most Sabahans haven’t tried this delicacy yet. Hope the younger generations are educated that butod is great stuff and that nobody should be afraid to eat it.

Butod Products

As one of the Four Asian Tigers, Thailand is far ahead in the food industry. You can buy butod in packages and tins from their supermarket and even order them online! Here are some product shots for your viewing pleasure.

Yes, you can eat worms as a snack. Do share with your friends!

Let’s open a can of worms, shall we?

Photos taken in Sabah, Malaysia Borneo