Good to be back

Yeehaaa!!!!! I’m back in Malaysia.

OK! I've been back 2 weeks now. Feels great to be back. There’s so many things to do and I've more or less spent the last two weeks running all around KL, PJ and other parts of the Klang Valley running errands and catching up with friends.

After much deliberation with my wife, we've decided to postpone our return trip to the Netherlands. Instead of returning on the 24^th of February, we've delayed it for another 2 weeks and decided that we will return on the 9^th of March (It wasn't really our choice as we couldn't get earlier tickets back). So, there will be a lot more eating to do.

In keeping with the theme of this blog, I've decided to write about my nasi lemak experiences during this trip first. I’ll write about some of the other food another time (and there will be lots of it).

Each nasi lemak portion is enough for a complete meal

The first nasi lemak I had was one of my all-time favorites. It’s one of those that are wrapped in banana leaves, consisting of your basic nasi lemak with the sambal, the dried anchovies, eggs and cucumber. One wrapped nasi lemak is enough for one meal although on almost every occasion, I’ll have 2 portions for breakfast (The only times I don’t have 2 portions is when I have 3).

This nasi lemak has been one of my favorites since the year 2000. It is sold by this lovely kakak (sister) by the roadside in Bandar Seri Damansara, Kuala Lumpur. She sells nasi lemak and fried mee hoon (which she makes herself) and also some malay kueh such as karipap, kuih ketayap, kuih keria and seri muka. Her stall is usually open by around 7.00 am as she tries to catch the early crowd heading out to work.

My wife buying the nasi lemak from the kakak

On a weekday, things are normally quite slow and she doesn’t make and sell a lot of nasi lemak. You can still get nasi lemak from her around 10.00 am on a weekday. But on a weekend, you have to be early if you want a taste of her nasi lemak. In fact you’ll be lucky to get any by 9.00 am.

I love this kakak’s nasi lemak because of her sambal. The sambal is superb. It’s just a plain sambal without any anchovies in it, but the taste is wonderful. It’s a bit on the hot side but it is beautifully balanced with sweetness. Her rice is a bit inconsistent, sometimes a bit too mushy and sometimes perfectly cooked. But the deliciousness of her sambal makes up for any imperfections in her rice.

For anyone who would like to give this kakak’s nasi lemak a try, her stall is located at Persiaran Margosa in Bandar Seri Damansara, Kuala Lumpur. It’s not too difficult to find as her stall is the only one along that road. 

UK Trip (Part 2)

Before I continue on to Part 2 of my UK Trip, let me first apologize to Teddy and all my readers. I got the name of Teddy’s bistro slightly wrong in Part 1. It’s actually called the “Malay Cuisine and Bistro”. I only realized this last night when I visited their Facebook page to get some details of the bistro. A big APOLOGY for that mistake.

Moving on, after we finished our meal at the bistro, my wife and I headed to Liverpool. I was planning on catching a football game between my favorite team, Liverpool FC, and BSC Young Boys from Switzerland. Surprisingly, for someone who wasn't keen on watching a football game, my wife was more excited than me throughout the game. She made more commentaries about how the game was going on and about our defending. We should watch more games together (but maybe we should wait until it gets warmer).

The teams lining up at Anfield. Unfortunately we were on the opposite side

Overall, the game was an exciting one, but the end result wasn't good for us. The game ended in a 2 – 2 draw, and I have to say, we were very bad at defending. We took the lead twice and due to our lapse in defense, they equalized twice.

The next morning, we had planned to drive all the way down to Bath. I went to the University of Bath and had planned a visit to some of my old hunting grounds. The main purpose of going there was to go to Sally Lunn’s House and Cross Guns (more on those 2 later).

Somehow, after a shower and packing all our stuff, our plans changed. I remembered the menu board at Teddy’s place and started to wish that I had tried the nasi lemak. I suggested we drop by at Teddy’s place on the way south and my wife was quite enthusiastic about the idea. So once again, we took a detour (again, nowhere near the route we were supposed to take to Bath) and headed off to Stalybridge (and again, the thought of eating nasi lemak made me drool all the way).

Teddy's nasi lemak

The nasi lemak was absolutely delicious. The rice was less creamier compared to mine, which I suppose was due to it being cooked in a lot less coconut milk, but had cardamoms and cloves in it. These spices were a perfect substitute for the coconut milk as they also gave the rice richness without the heaviness of the coconut milk. The anchovies came on the side and not in the sambal, but the sambal was full of chopped onions (I usually blend my onions and put some of the dried anchovies in my sambal) and these chopped onions gave the sambal its sweetness. All in all, the nasi lemak was superb and because it didn't use as much coconut milk, you don’t get the feeling of wanting to doze off after (which was good since I was going to spend 2 hours driving on a boring motorway).

The nasi lemak also came with some chicken satay. When it comes to satay, I'm a bit of a stickler. My dad used to sell the best satay at night markets in Kemaman, Terengganu. We used to make our own satay and the peanut sauce that accompanies the satay. Every year, during the Eid celebration, we used to get huge orders for satay (in one year, the orders exceeded 80,000 sticks of satay). So my dad's satay was very popular in Kemaman (in fact, if you happen to visit Kemaman and there is a night market, you might still find a stall there which uses my dad's recipe. Look out for Satay Bistari and I can guarantee you that you will enjoy the satay).

Teddy's satay, although not as delicious as my dad's, had the right ingredients. The chicken was tender and moist while the peanut sauce was hot and creamy. Shame there was only 3 sticks of it. I enjoyed the satay although I do miss my dad's satay (Maybe on my next trip back to Malaysia I'll take a short day trip up to Kemaman).

Back to my story. We had to change our plans and not head to Bath that day. The extra 2 and a half hour detour (including the time it took for us to finish our meal) created havoc to our plans but it was well worth it. We ended up heading into the countryside around the Cotswold area to places like Chipping Campden, Stow on the Wold and Burford and went shopping instead (which was our plan for the third day). We spent the night in a very nice hotel at Highworth which is half an hour outside of Swindon. A bit of chaos to our holiday plans, but still a good meal and a good day.

When all else fails....

I was back in Kuala Lumpur last week. Although I went back to visit my kids especially the youngest, who was recently diagnosed as having a growth in his brain and had to undergo surgery, I also had some errands to run. So I spent almost an entire week darting from one end of KL to another, making brief sojourns into Shah Alam and Petaling Jaya, while trying to ensure that everything I had to do was done. And as always when you runaround trying to complete all your errands, you will forget one or two (no need to go into details of that).

Going back to KL is always fun. There’s always so much to do, many places to go and a lot of friends to catch up with. Special thanks to Ida, Selva, Arni, Salwani, Nasir, Fadhli, Jaf, Hakim, Nazam, Alfie and Shasha for putting up with my last minute calls to hangout. I’ll try to give you guys more notice next time I’m back.

Chawan Kopitiam in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur

The biggest problem I always have when trying to meet up with friends in KL is to find a decent location to hangout. With friends coming from all over the Klang Valley, it’s always a challenge to find a place which is central enough so that everyone has to go through the hassle of KL traffic just to meet up (we have to be fair to everyone). About the only place I can think of which is both convenient for everyone to meet, and can give you migraines to get to is Bangsar.

The unwrapped "Nasi Lemak Bungkus"

So, while I was in KL, I spent quite a lot of time hanging out at Chawan, the one which is located in the Jalan Telawi area of Bangsar (99% of my friends have to go through some form of traffic jam just to get to Bangsar). This is the location of the original Chawan kopitiam. It has opened a branch in Citta Mall, Kelana Jaya but being in a very central location, this remains the preferred venue to meet up with friends and hangout.

Just to clarify my position, I don’t LOVE Chawan. In my opinion, as a Kopitiam, it’s pretty decent. The food there is good without being outstanding, the atmosphere is friendly, although on hot days, try to find a seat in front of one of their industrial sized fans, and the prices are quite reasonable. Even though it’s not my favorite place to hangout, it IS a place I go to whenever I can’t think of any other place in a central location to meet with friends. So in my book, Chawan is a “when all else fails” kind of place.

Although it falls into that category, they do serve a very nice nasi lemak. If you look at the menu, you will find 2 different versions of nasi lemak. The first is the “Nasi Lemak Bungkus” which is the meal that I always order whenever I’m at Chawan and looking for something a bit heavier to eat. Then there is the “Nasi Lemak with Chicken Rendang”, which is your standard kopitiam nasi lemak.

Unwrapping the "Nasi Lemak Bungkus"reveals a delicious meal

The “Nasi Lemak Bungkus”, is just your basic nasi lemak which is essentially made up of rice, sambal, cucumbers and boiled egg.  At Chawan, the portion of the nasi lemak bungkus is much bigger than what you will find elsewhere. The rice although a bit lacking in terms of richness, is nicely cooked and is quite flavorful. The sambal has the right balance of sweetness, sour and salty, with a twinge of hot to give it a bit of zing. The cucumber and boiled egg is just that, you won’t get any kind of variety anywhere else.

The "Nasi Lemak with Chicken Rendang", equally as good

I find myself ordering the “Nasi Lemak Bungkus”at Chawan on almost every visit. It’s a simple meal but delicious nonetheless. It’s been creeping up my “list of top places for nasi lemak” for quite some time now. Not bad for a place which falls into my “when all else fails”category.

Expressing displeasure

I am not a happy bunny. I am so disappointed that I have to write this post now on my 4 inch android smart phone screen rather than wait till I get home and type it nicely on my 15 inch screen notebook.

This is what happened. I haven't been sleeping very well since I got to Malaysia. I had a couple of hours sleep the first night I arrived, and since then, about 4 to 5 hours a night. This morning, my body.decided to retaliate. By the time I woke up, it was already 10.00 am (all my plans to go out for an early morning run went out the window by then).

In school, my teachers always told me that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So I always treat the first meal of the day as breakfast, no matter what time of the day it is. Following that, at breakfast, I must have a breakfast meal. So a juicy piece of steak is not an acceptable breakfast meal. Neither is nasi kandar or tomyam. Unpleasant things might happen if I don't follow the proper protocol (however, a breakfast meal can be eaten for dinner as my tummy loves breakfast meals).

Since breakfast had already shifted into brunch's area, I had to get breakfast pretty quick. I decided that a roti canai at Raju's would go down very well, so I jumped into my car and started to make my way there.
Now, anyone who has spent at least 2 weeks in Kuala Lumpur will know that you do not take the Federal Highway from Subang to KL during peak hours. But since it was already 11.00, I thought it would be.pretty safe, I was wrong. It looked almost like a carpark (don't these people have jobs they should be at).

Since breakfast was perilously close to trespassing into lunch's territory, I had to take drastic action. A light bulb went off in my head and when I saw the junction to the LDP. I realized I was close to one of my favourite places for nasi dagang and laksam (both of these are perfectly acceptable breakfast meals).

Restoran Jaya in Kelana Jaya, Petaling Jaya, specializes in Kelantanese dishes. It serves a variety of meals but I particularly love their nasi dagang and laksam. Sometimes on weekends, they will also have pulut lepa (or pulut panggang to those who do not understand Terengganu speak). Since I was in the neighbourhood, I thought I'd drop by for some nasi dagang.

Restoran Jaya in Kelana Jaya

When I got to the restaurant, I immediately went to check out their food counter. They had run out of laksam, but they still had some nasi dagang left. Wonderful. I ordered a plate and took a seat, while the waitress started to spoon out the rice onto a plate. As I was sitting down, the girl came up to me and told me that they were out of fish. All they had left was chicken.

No Terengganu born person will eat their nasi dagang with chicken. We Terengganu born and bred will only eat our nasi dagang with fish. I was disappointed, and to express my disappointment, I told the girl to forget about serving me nasi dagang with chicken.

Since I was already in lunch territory, and my tummy was already expressing its unhappiness at not being filled, I decided to order a nasi lemak. I've never had nasi lemak at Restaurant Jaya but I do know some people who like it.

It wasn't bad actually. The sambal was a bit too hot and it didn't have enough anchovies. The rice wasn't as creamy as the rice that I usually cook, but overall, it was pretty tasty. It wasn't outstanding but still a thumbs up to them.

The nasi lemak

My tummy doesn't like it when I change my mind about what I want to eat. Once I make my decision on what to eat, I have to stick with it (better I don't decide on anything until I look at the menu). It tolerates it when I change my mind once, but it gets very unhappy when I change my mind twice. And it expressed it's disappointment 30 minutes ago. I just about made it to the toilet.

P.s. I don't know the address of Restaurant Jaya but I can describe how to get there or better yet, I can take you there. All I want is a plate of nasi dagang in return. For a description of the directions or to arrange an excursion, please leave a comment with contact info and proposed date of excursion so we can meet there or we can go together so I can collect on my payment.

Where to first?

I've been living away from Malaysia for about 18 months now. Although by some standards, that isn't a very long time, for someone who has hardly left the country in the past 20 years, it sometimes feels like an eternity. Moving to another country, there are so many things that you leave behind. Before moving, you experience the excitement of being able to travel and live in another country, but there's also the dread of leaving behind family and friends, places you go to regularly, and in most cases (especially for Malaysians) the food.

Nowadays, you can find a Malaysian restaurant in most countries. If you're ever in London, you can enjoy a mouthwatering "daging salai masak lemak cili api" at Bonda Restaurant and in Luxembourg, you can start a fire in your tummy with a "sambal sotong" at Restaurant Malaysian.  Every major European city now has a Malaysian restaurant, so there's always a place where you can get the flavors of Malaysia whenever you don't feel like cooking.

However, to me, it's never the same as being home. Maybe it's the environment, maybe it's the weather or maybe it's the company. Eating a tomyam in Den Haag never feels the same as the superb tomyam I get at Restoran Sri Melaka at Amcorp Mall in Petaling Jaya even if the ingredients are the same.

So now that I'm back in Malaysia for a week, you would think I would have a "things to eat list". Surprisingly, no. It's 3 a.m. in the morning of my first day back in Malaysia, and I can't decide where or what I'm going to have for breakfast. Shall I go to "Raju's" in Jalan Gasing for roti canai? Or maybe to "Ulik Mayang" for some nasi dagang (But then again, I had that a couple of weeks ago in Den Haag)? Or, maybe since the main topic of this blog is about nasi lemak, maybe I should go have that.

Oh well, I'll make up my mind when I get up in the morning. I might be spared the agony of indecision anyway since I am still awake at 4.00 a.m. so maybe, by the time I wake up, it'll be lunch time.