What does porcupine meat taste like?

Bukit Sekilau is my kampung. The Shining Hill. I was told that it was named from the fishes found in the small river while they were clearing up the land.

Growing up, there were many encounters with strange animals as my grandmother's house was so near to the thick jungle of Bukit Sekilau. These encounters were possible because of my step grandfather. I called him Ayoh (Father). I'll blog separately on why I called him that.

Ayoh was an adventurer…(I got the adventurous bug from him, maybe?). He would venture into the jungle and came back carrying a big log on his shoulder 3 or even 4 times his size. I kid you not. I remembered being asked whether he "bela hantu" (rearing ghosts). That's another blog post…Occasionally he would set up a trap and we would be able to see strange looking animals the next morning. Musang (fox) and landak (porcupine) would be most commonly seen. I remember Ayoh proudly standing beside his trap with a very slight smile.

I was never allowed to witness the sembelih process. I am, in a way, thankful for that. The one thing I always get though, is the porcupine quills or duri or spine. I kept it to use as a pointer during mengaji Al-Quran (reciting Al-Quran). There were thin, short and very soft porcupine quills and there are some which are as long as my Al-Quran. They are really sharp and I had to snip the tip just to be safe.

At lunch there's a special dish of course - porcupine meat. Strangely enough, this is the part I could not recall. What dish did my grandmother cook? How could I ever recall the taste of the porcupine meat if I cannot remember the dish?

I hope someone out there can tell m the taste of porcupine meat…I sincerely hope the answer is not "it taste like chicken"!!

Update: In 1972, Landak was registered as an endangered species. Today it is not under any threat of extinction. As a matter of fact, in Malaysia, the Jabatan Haiwan (Veterinary Department) has a program to rear landak commercially (specifically in Perak circa 2005). There'll be enough landak meat for everyone!!

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