Did I mention that bottled tuak (local Iban rice wine) was served at the wedding? Full on, tuak in a bottle, served in champagne glasses!

When I was a child, tuak was always in an old dusty vinegar bottle or a recycled soft drink bottle. Whenever we went on ngabangs, or ritual visiting, at my dad's longhouse during the Gawai harvest festival, the host would pour the tuak into a water glass. Sometimes the glass was full, sometimes half full, sometimes a quarter inch - it all depended on how drunk the visitor was (and sometimes how drunk the host was). Then the host would give the glass to his or her visitor, and the visitor would scull it down. Oftentimes, the tuak was foul. But scull it, you had to, with a completely straight face.

On reflection, those ngabangs are a lot like pub crawls. The men, and some of the women (and one Gawai many years past, Denning) get awfully drunk after a ngabang.

So, it was a surprise when the bottle of what I assumed was white wine turned out to be tuak. It seemed ... pretentious to be drinking tuak out of champagne glasses, when you considered its earthy background. But the glasses were set on the table, so I drank fermented rice wine from champagne glasses, giggling madly on the inside. This tuak had a dessert wine sweetness, and being a fan of sweet wines, I liked it, of course.

But tuak in a wine bottle! But wait, it wasn't any old tuak, mind you. It was Premium tuak!

Amazing! What would they think of next?

Wonder if there are any bottles of tuak from the last batch Dad attempted to brew?