The very mention of the word ‘nasi lemak’ brings back memories of happy childhood days when I would gobble on mom’s home-cooked version of this popular local dish. We get to eat this at least once a month on a Friday (abstinence from meat being from a Catholic family). Her version, though, is quite different. The rice is extremely fragrant, each grain fluffly and lushly coated in santan. Yet it is moist, not dry like how most hawkers do it these days. The accompaniments included sambal udang, omelette, crispy deep-fried ikan bilis, deep-fried ikan kuning marinated in kunyit, and deep-fried tauhu which we dipped in sambal tumis with ikan bilis.
These are but memories now. Mom has passed on. Sadly, none of us have mastered her recipe or inherited her moxie for cooking the perfect nasi lemak.
Fortunately, there are many good commercial ones available these days. Amongst the most popular Malay stalls are the Changi Village Nasi Lemak, Selera Rasa @ Adam Road Food Centre and the Power Nasi Lemak @ Boon Lay. Otherwise there is Punggol Nasi Lemak, for those who prefer the Chinese version.
Last night, perchance, I stumbled upon a stall selling pre-packed nasi lemak which looked temptingly good to me. It was a stall at the pasar malam currently held outside Causeway Point. Look for the one, nearest to the shopping centre. They also sell tauhu isi, another favourite local snack of mine. I forgot the name but I am sure you can recognise it from its packaging which is rather unique with the tail of the ikan kuning jutting out on top.
It has the usual accompaniments – ikan bilis, ikan kuning, telor dadar and sambal - and is really sedap!
As sedap as it may be, the rice though moist is a little too lumpy not like the way mom used to do it – fragrant, moist yet fluffy. I can still relish, in the windmills of my mind, the richness of mom’s nasi lemak! But what I really cherish is the love and devotion mom put into the preparation of this dish.
These are but memories now. Mom has passed on. Sadly, none of us have mastered her recipe or inherited her moxie for cooking the perfect nasi lemak.
Fortunately, there are many good commercial ones available these days. Amongst the most popular Malay stalls are the Changi Village Nasi Lemak, Selera Rasa @ Adam Road Food Centre and the Power Nasi Lemak @ Boon Lay. Otherwise there is Punggol Nasi Lemak, for those who prefer the Chinese version.
Last night, perchance, I stumbled upon a stall selling pre-packed nasi lemak which looked temptingly good to me. It was a stall at the pasar malam currently held outside Causeway Point. Look for the one, nearest to the shopping centre. They also sell tauhu isi, another favourite local snack of mine. I forgot the name but I am sure you can recognise it from its packaging which is rather unique with the tail of the ikan kuning jutting out on top.
It has the usual accompaniments – ikan bilis, ikan kuning, telor dadar and sambal - and is really sedap!
As sedap as it may be, the rice though moist is a little too lumpy not like the way mom used to do it – fragrant, moist yet fluffy. I can still relish, in the windmills of my mind, the richness of mom’s nasi lemak! But what I really cherish is the love and devotion mom put into the preparation of this dish.
1 comment:
Reading your post made me realize how much I miss buying nasi lemak for breakfast. Living abroad, one has to learn to cook it, but so far, my experiments have not been very satisfactory!
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