A Typical Malaysian Breakfast-Nasi Lemak

[Rajkumar]

.Above is a picture of my breakfast - plain old nasi lemak on banana leaf. No beef/chicken/mutton rendang, no cuttlefish, no shrimp, no chicken gizzard, not even chicken floss, kangkung belacan or keropok. Just plain nasi lemak with quarter of a half-boiled egg, slices of cucumber, sambal and fried peanuts and ikan bilis (anchovies). To me, a good nasi lemak must be served on banana leaf, which gives it a special banana leaf fragrance.

The most important ingredient in nasi lemak is not the rice. It's the banana leaf! And it must be a real banana leaf and not some plastic plate shaped like a piece of banana leaf that you find in some restaurant. Don't get fooled it's not April fool. A banana leaf has got two sides, you should use the upper side that's facing the sun and not the side with the stem of the leaf.

Then comes the rice. The rice is cooked in coconut milk, which gives it a unique cholesterol laden heavenly fragrance. Some even add knotted pandan leaves, ginger or lemon grass during the cooking. Some add a bit of salt, butter or some even use ghee.

Next come the sambal. Sambal is cooked oil-soaked sweet chilli (both dried and fresh chillies are used) paste in pounded shallots, garlic, belacan (shrimp paste), sugar, salt and tamarind juice. Some add anchovies into sambal but I prefer my anchovies to be crispy and not stuck to my teeth.

And the egg. Traditionally, nasi lemak is ate with sliced hard boiled egg. You'll need to use a wired slicer to slice the egg. These days, people lazy to use wired cutter, they use a piece of tense string to cut the hard boiled egg into wedges, much like lazy Kentucky Fried Chicken serving potato wedges instead of traditional French fries. Some nasi lemak is served with whole or pieces of omelette. Some with purse-egg with liquid yolk (sunny side up with yolk on one side, before yolk harden, fold the other half over it).

Slices of cucumber are served along with nasi lemak. Preferably crunchy fresh cucumber, which helps to sooth your swollen tongue once in a while.

Fried peanuts and crispy anchovies are a must. You can see in the photo that the peanuts and anchovies are packed separately to retain their crispness.

Hope I have not spoilt your breakfast.Its a breakfast for Malaysian students in Crimea state Medical University.

Thank You and Have a Good Day.





[Edited by Rajkumar on 8th November 2004 at 16:49]