Likewise, Orang Laut cuisine, which is characterised by fresh seafood obtained using traditional fishing and foraging methods and cooked simply in spices, is now lost in the broader umbrella of Malay food, sometimes even unknown to descendants of the Orang Laut themselves. While flavourful dishes like sotong hitam (squid in squid ink), siput sedut lemak (sea snails in coconut gravy) and asam pedas are easily found at nasi padang (rice with precooked dishes) stalls in Singapore, mainstream Malay food culture tends to not account for variations in the dishes that exist throughout the Malay Archipelago – including those of the Orang Laut – thus leaving their origins unquestioned and stories left untold.
