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A Toast to Nasi Lemak
Mihar Dias
(C) Copyright December 2021
Nasi lemak, our humble national breakfast, comes in a variety of packages. At stalls or coffee shops they are in a pyramid shape, lined with banana leaf and wrapped in brown paper.
It is a fast and convenient breakfast. With a serving of 60 grammes of rice, you may get a hard-boiled egg, a few pieces of peanuts, fried anchovies and sambal.
One packet and a cup of coffee or “Teh Tarik” will keep you going through to lunchtime.
Some have promoted the pyramid packaging as nasi lemak “tÈtek”. Whoever thought of this strategy must be perverted. But it gained momentum, boosting sales for the proprietors. It was hilariously welcomed by young adults who thought they were buying edible tÈteks.
More commonly, nasi lemak is in plastic packets. At a roadside stall, you may find rendang, tempe, sotong or eggs in sambal and curries to suit your palette. The nasi might be as good as any but the plastic is not and contributes towards environmental pollution, an inconvenient truth about this convenient packaging.
At a popular restaurant that we frequent, tasty beef rendang and red chilli sauces are served on layers of peeled banana buds in their original shades of purple.
The condiments of ikan bilis, peanuts and chillies are creatively arranged next to green pandan Basmati rice.
The platter appears like a canvas of various colours to feast your eyes on, whetting your appetite.
When mixed with rendang and sambal the aromatic nasi becomes exceptionally tasty.
“They have the best rendang in the world”, said the late Kay Kafka, a tennis partner and close family friend, probably the only German retiree who frequented the restaurant with his lovely wife, Helle, every week during their 20-year stay as residents under “Malaysia My Second Home”.
Visit House & Co at Bangsar Shopping Centre for this fabulous dish. You will return for more. I guarantee.
Another creative serving of nasi lemak was what I saw recently at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club. It was in a bento box.
A bento box is a container with compartments. Bento means convenience. The most Japanese use it to take away food as we would a lunch box or a tiffin carrier.
I have seen similar attempts but they lacked style. But at KLGCC, there was a touch of class, they served it in an attractive lacquerware box.
It had a red interior with four compartments; one each for kangkong, fried chicken and rice. The fourth had peanuts, anchovies and sambal.
The result was stunning. More so when the waiter while serving the bento box politely said, “Bona petit! Enjoy your meal, Sir”.
On one occasion, I could not resist urging my guests to join me in a toast, “Gentlemen, Nasi Lemak has arrived!”
What I was toasting to, was an acknowledgement to the humble nasi lemak, that had successfully scaled the heights of our culinary ladder, to arrive at a renowned country club, in an impressive lacquer box, with a touch of class!
Mihar Dias is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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