It has been many years since I’ve stumbled upon a good simple Nasi Lemak. Simple Nasi Lemak is a term I think I invented myself just few minutes ago. When I was young, whenever my mom told me that we are having Nasi Lemak for breakfast, in my mind the Nasi Lemak would look like the picture I just posted above. Those days, nasi lemak is simply packed in a banana leaf and consisted of rice cooked with coconut milk, sambal ikan bilis, a slice of cucumber, quarter of boil egg and some fried peanuts.
Fast forward to present day, nasi lemak now has evolved to a dish with way more dishes in it. It is not packed in banana leaf but serve on a plastic plate. It has choice of fried chicken, fried fish, otah, sausage and fish cake along with the standard sambal, peanut, anchovies,egg and cucumber.
I still prefer the old version of nasi lemak maybe because of sentimental value. I just like the idea of hot steamed coconut flavored rice wrapped in a banana leaf that gives that special fragrant that a nasi lemak should have. Is so hard to find a good simple nasi lemak nowadays. Maybe people are just too lazy to find banana leaf and take the trouble to wrap it. It is much easier to just serve it on a plate.
I remember when I was a kid, whenever I have school examinations, my dad would normally treat me for breakfast before going to school. On usual schooldays, breakfast is eaten at home with a simple hot milo with some bread and butter. So I kinda like having examinations because I know I will get to eat tasty breakfast before going to school. He would normally bring me to this coffee shop where simple nasi lemak are being served.
Nasi Lemak unwrapped
To me a nice nasi lemak is all about the sambal. Sambal is chili paste cooked with belacan. Some use tamarind and as simple as it sounds, it is not easy to get the perfect taste of sambal for nasi lemak. Is like a musician playing a piano. Everybody hit the same notes but not everyone can make a classical piece sound the same.
I was pretty satisfied with the taste of this simple nasi lemak that I bought in ABC Food Court. It cost me SGD1.20 and a glass of hot Tea-O (SGD0.60), I was able to relive my previous experience eating nasi lemak before going to school. The only difference is after this meal, I don’t have to go for school examination but I can go back home to sleep after filling my tummy.