Not Just a Pretty Face
In this pandemic, the food outlets coming out ahead of the game are the ones offering one-dish meals. Or if not one dish per se, an assortment of different ingredients making up one dish.
And what better dish to serve up than our national dish, the Malaysian Nasi Lemak. In whatever guise or permutation, Nasi Lemak deconstructed has to have rice, sambal, cucumber and egg.
The myriad costumes it dons is up to the creativity of the chef and the sky’s the limit.
I’ve had Nasi Lemak on the roadside wrapped in banana leaf and eaten with my hands, fancy schmancy Nasi Lemak in 5-star hotel restaurants, some toned down for the spice averse (these are horrid) and some palate-searing ones appealing to spice freaks like myself.
Individual tastes vary but as I’m the one reviewing and it’s my palate we’re talking about here, I can afford to state my criteria for Nasi Lemak. So here are some of my dictates in what I consider an acceptable Nasi Lemak:
Firstly the rice must have enough Santan. Then the sambal must be robust, have body (I call it oomph) and must be sufficiently spicy to raise a mild sweat on my forehead. The cucumber must be crunchy and the peanuts freshly fried and not kept in a jar to turn rancid.
Leng Zai fulfilled my criteria with ease.
Continue reading at Ipoh Food Diva.
For more reviews, go to SeeFoon’s blog at www.IpohFoodDiva.my
