At a glance

In the last post, I more or less elaborated on my fascination with this Malaysian meal, so I guess now I should go into more detail as to the essential components of the meal. Bear with me cause this could be quite long.

A lot of my friends place emphasis on the dishes that come with the nasi lemak. They place a high degree of importance on the fried chicken, “paru goreng” (fried cow’s lung) and Chicken “rending” and other dishes that sometimes accompany the meal. I, on the other hand, don’t consider these dishes at all when looking for a good nasi lemak. The most important criteria for a good nasi lemak to me are the rice and the “sambal”.

a)      The rice

The rice is cooked in coconut milk with some ginger, shallots and salt to give it flavoring. The coconut milk gives the rice a wholesome and rich flavor. Besides giving it a bit of a bite, the ginger and shallots also produces a wonderful smell when you open the lid of the rice cooker. For more aromas, most people will add a “pandan” leaf. Personally, the “pandan” leaf is not an essential ingredient.

Over the years, I haven’t really seen much variety when it comes to the rice. I have seen people add in pepper to the rice, but this doesn’t change the taste much. Recently though, I have encountered nasi lemak where the rice is also mixed with dhal beans which besides increases the richness of the rice, also provides some crunchiness as well.

b)      The sambal

This is the most important dish. The basic nasi lemak comes with a sambal of dried anchovies cooked in a chili sauce. To me, this is the dish that makes or breaks the nasi lemak. Even though the sambal has a fiery chili base, it does not have to be very hot. However, to cross the line between average and mouthwateringly delicious, it has to have a perfect balance of sweet, sour and salty.

There have been many variations to the sambal. The basic taste has remained the same, only the contents have changed. I have seen people use prawns, squids, chicken and even eggs as a substitute for the dried anchovies. I prefer to stick to the crunchiness of the dried anchovies, fried prior to mixing it in the sambal. I have on occasions used boiled quail eggs as a substitute.

Besides the rice and the sambal, nasi lemak is served with basic accompaniments. Slices of cucumber (sometimes useful to help reduce the fiery effects of the sambal) boiled eggs (sometimes fried) and fried anchovies (usually the same ones that goes into the sambal set aside as an accompaniment) are the typical ones.

Nowadays, most places will serve nasi lemak with other dishes. In your typical Malaysian kopitiam, you will get a piece of chicken “rendang” together with your meal. Some stalls I know specialize in nasi lemak accompanied with a steaming hot piece of deep fried chicken. Other places will have a variety of dishes which you can have with your nasi lemak. As for me, it doesn’t matter what comes with the nasi lemak, as long as the two basic components of the meal, the rice and the sambal, are delicious, then you better be wearing stretch pants, or make sure your pants don’t fall off when you unbutton your pants.