Kisah Nasi Lemak

Nasi lemak buah bidara

Sayang selasih hamba lurutkan

Buang emak buang saudara

Kerana kasih hamba turutkan

That is the pantun melayu related to Nasi Lemak but what I am going to talk about is not related at all to the pantun above :) . My version of nasi lemak pantun will be at the end of my post. So please keep reading!

My family loves to eat nasi lemak including me! Nasi lemak has been a branding name for Malaysian food. If you go to any place in Malaysia, you can easily find Nasi Lemak. You can have it for breakfast, lunch or dinner - anytime of the day. Nasi lemak is a traditional Malay cuisine where the fragrant rice is cooked in coconut milk. It is served with "sambal" or chili paste, slice cucumber, anchovies and hard boiled egg.

I call that the very basic Nasi Lemak. Some people just couldn't get enough with that basic side dish will add up fried chicken, chicken rendang, sambal kerang, paru or whatever they like to suit their taste buds. Nasi lemak also served in various ways. You can have Nasi Lemak served on the plate along with the side dishes or a pack Nasi Lemak that is wrapped nicely in a piece of paper with banana leaves that will look like a cone.

Nowadays you can hardly find it as probably because the shortage of banana leaves or people just find it is messy and tedious to do it. As for me, I love this pack Nasi Lemak. The banana leaves give a nice fragrant that make your nasi lemak more delicious.

A few months back, I have started to learn how to pack this Nasi lemak. Mind you.. it is not that easy as you see as it needs practice and skills! My first attempt making Nasi Lemak bungkus made for my family was a success! I made quite a lot that all of us ate and finished it the whole day.

Nasi Lemak Cik Intan

After that slowly friends in Muscat here got to know about this Nasi Lemak bungkus have requested and ordered to buy from me. Well.. from there I gain more confidence in doing it as people tend to like it.  Initially I used the normal newspaper but seems I have to sell it to people, I have to buy the brown paper that specially brought from Malaysia. Along with that I also have to get the anchovies from Malaysia.

Business goes very well as i got ordered continuously with at least minimum of 50 packs. Alhamdullilah.. As orders got frequents, I got better in packing the Nasi Lemak. The part that worried me if I have run out of anchovies and sometimes banana leaves. I get banana leaves supply from one of the supermarket here and so far I have no problem in that.

Many asked me what is the secret of my delicious Nasi Lemak? My secret are, when you cook something, don't be stingy in all the ingredients. Cook as if you cook for your family. Cook with love and everybody who eats your food will fall in love with it too!

As promised.. here is my version of Nasi Lemak pantun :

Nasi lemak buah bidara

Sayang selasih hamba lurutkan

Nasi lemak Cik Intan jadi bual bicara

Sekali rasa pasti dalam ingatan