Known as Butod locally, Sago Grub or Sago Worm is a delicacy, as well as the most disgusting food of Sabah. Junk food always look good, but it does ugly things to your body. Sago Grub is the opposite, it’s an ugly but nutritious food. However, it’s a test of bravery to put this wriggling bug into your mouth. Butod is the larvae of Sago Palm Weevil, a species of snout beetle that consumes sago palm during its infancy. Sago Grub can grow fatter than the little finger and looks like a giant maggot. This creamy yellow color and fat worm is rich in protein and sold at US$0.25 each (RM40 – 45 per Kg), quite expensive, but still a hot selling item in local market. According to Dr. Arthur Chung, an insect expert, adult Sago Palm Weevil is also consumed in Sabah. The rusty red colour adults are usually grilled or roasted, with the hard and spiny parts, and unsavoury guts removed before eating. The best place to collect sago grubs is in sago palm, as they feed on starchy pith of decaying sago palm tree, before they are mature and transform into beetle after 2 months. Just chop the sago trunk to look for butod in the spongy internal of the palm. Farmers also deliberately cut some opening on fallen sago tree, to attract female weevils to lay eggs inside. They could harvest up to 100 butod per trunk after 1 to 3 months.
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