Nasi Lemak
Authentic Nasi Lemak is a rice dish wrapped in banana leaf to form the shape of a small pyramid parcel and are usually eaten cold straight out of the pack.
Commonly eaten at breakfast, Nasi Lemak is often found at road side stalls at any time of the day.
Nasi Lemak in parcels are a much simpler version and usually containing only one or two toppings while the Nasi Lemak served at a restaurants or hawker centres on a plate, sometimes lined with a cut of banana leaf for authenticity usually comes with a variety of toppings and is usually served with warm rice.
The rice is cooked in coconut milk with screw pine leaves (daun pandan) to give it a creamy texture and fragrant aroma.
The toppings are usually spicy sambal sauce, cripsy anchovies, crunchy peanuts, sliced cucumber and hard boiled egg.
It’s kind of like a national dish, famous among the locals and found in most major restaurants throughout Malaysia.
If you fancy a plate of posh Nasi Lemak, pop into the one of the Resort Hotels, and they are bound to have it, at it’s most glorious.
However, we strongly recommend the authentic roadside or hawker stalls that are most sought-after by the locals; it is after all really hawker food.
Extras
Hawker stalls that specialise in Nasi Lemak, usually also offer a range of different curries, prawn, fish, chicken, a myriad style of eggs cooked hard-boiled, fried sunny side up, deep fried and other side dishes such as assam prawns, sambal stir fried okra.
Where to find Nasi Lemak: Sri Weld Food Court on Beach Street (Lebuh Pantai), Red Garden Cafe on Leith Street (Lebuh Leith), Jin Hoe cafe on Cantonment Road (near Pulau Tikus market), food sections of most wet markets, all main Resort Hotels.
Heat Level: Spicy / Sambal sauce is spicy.
Recipe Books
If you can’t get to Penang or simply want to prepare this at home, why not try one of the cook books below:
