Malaysian cuisine is derived from the pith extracted from the sago palm, and is the staple food for the Melanau and the Penan peoples of Sarawak. Sago starch is prepared as a gooey and sticky paste by the Bisaya and Kedayan communities called ambuyat, and is called "" by the Melanau. It is eaten by rolling the paste around the prongs of a bamboo fork, and dipped it into soup, "sambal", or other varieties of gravies and dipping sauces. Aside from being the source for sago pith, the sago palm is a source of another delicacy for the indigenous peoples of Borneo:
Sago of raw sago are imported each year into Malaysia to support the keropok lekor industry. In 1805, two captured crew members of the shipwrecked schooner "Betsey" were kept alive until their escape from an undetermined island on a diet of sago. Any starch can be pearled by heating and stirring small aggregates of moist starch, producing partly gelatinized dry kernels which swell but remain intact on boiling. Pearl sago closely resembles pearl tapioca. Both are typically small (about 2 mm diameter) dry, opaque balls. Both may be white (if very pure) or colored naturally grey, brown or black, or artificially