F. Merlin Franco, Assistant Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute of Asian Studies at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (IAS @ UBD), has just published a new article on “Persistence of the Salty-Sweet Nipah Sugar in the Popular Foodways of Brunei Darussalam.”

Co-authored with Nurzahidah Bakar and published in the Journal of Ethnobiology, the paper examines the position of gula anau, a sweetener obtained from the mangrove palm nipah (Nypa fruticans), in the popular foodways of contemporary Brunei.

Important as a “famine food” during the period of Japanese occupation during World War II, gula anau continues to sweeten drinks traditional snacks, known as kuih, even though white sugar has come to predominate in other foods.

In this paper, the authors seek to understand this persistence of gula anau in the popular foodways of Brunei Darussalam.

For more information about “Persistence of the Salty-Sweet Nipah Sugar in the Popular Foodways of Brunei Darussalam,” please see the abstract below or visit the Journal of Ethnobiology website.

Citation: F. Merlin Franco and Nurzahidah Bakar “Persistence of the Salty-Sweet Nipah Sugar in the Popular Foodways of Brunei Darussalam,” Journal of Ethnobiology 40(3), 368-385, (24 September 2020). https://doi.org/10.2993/0278-0771-40.3.368