How best to prepare sago

YOUR newspaper on Thursday published an article from Dr Miila Gena, of Divine Word University’s health faculty in Madang, about toxins in sago flour.
Firstly, in my village we have approximately 20 sago species. Out of those 20, we only use four.
We have local names for those 20 sago species.
Our grandparents and parents told us which sago palm is good to get sago flour and which is not good.
In my village we always use clean clear water to extract the starch from the sago palm.
We can tell whether the sago is properly processed or not by seeing the colour of the sago flour.
Most of my village people are now using a strainer to strain sago flour and cook.
If the sago is not strained properly, some small sago flesh will be hidden among the sago flour and you can easily swallow that.
The sago should be properly cooked.
Properly cooked sago will not have white powder in it. The white sago powder found in the precooked sago is described as “un-cooked” in the Wape society of Lumi.
Sago was my stable food and as long as I live I will have sago as my favorite menu.
I have introduced my tribal food call wolu (sago jelly) from my Wape tribe to my in-laws of inland Aroma Coast LLG, Central.

Isaiah Sapaki
Pai village, Lumi, Sandaun