Nasi lemak is a dish that comprises rice made fragrant with coconut cream and pandan leaves. A light meal that is believed to be Malay in origin, is traditionally accompanied by fried anchovies, sliced cucumbers, fried fish known as ikan selar, and a sweet chilli sauce.
Modern-day variations on the dish now offer an extensive array of other side dishes. Examples, a sunny-side up egg or a hard-boiled egg, fried chicken wing, fried fish cake, otah, etc.
Nasi lemak is Malay for “rice in cream”, a reference to the rice being cooked in coconut milk, or “richly flavoured rice”. The rice is lightly salted and made fragrant with a knot of pandanus leaves (locally known as pandan leaves) added while the rice is still cooking. It is the man-in-the-street’s breakfast, traditionally served with fried fish known in Malay as ikan selar kuning, local anchovies known as ikan bilis, kangkong (also known as water spinach or water convolvulus) and a dollop of sambal (a type of chilli paste). The ikan kuning is fried so crisp that it can be eaten whole. Nowadays, the anchovies are fried with salted peanuts, the dish topped with thin slices of cucumber and an egg, fried or boiled. The rice and all its condiments and side dishes are kept warm in a banana leaf folded into a conical pocket.
The sambal is the dish’s signature condiment. Malays prefer their rice with sambal ikan bilis (a chilli paste made of local anchovies) while Peranakans prefer sambal belacan (chilli shrimp paste). The sambal is a combination of dried chillis, shallots, garlic and belacan with sometimes sliced lemon grass added. Sugar and tamarind give the chilli sauce a sweet and tangy taste.
The rice is traditionally steamed because if it is cooked over a hot fire, the coconut milk can easily burn. Modern cooks use a rice cooker and replace water with the coconut milk instead. Some secrets to good nasi lemak include cooking the rice halfway the night before, then adding the coconut milk and pandan leaves the following morning before completing the cooking process.
It is believed that when the local Malay community resided by the seafront in Singapore’s early years, the availability of ingredients such as the coconut and the flavourful outcome of adding it to rice resulted in the innovation of nasi lemak. Side dishes added to the rice came from the village’s natural resources – kangkong plucked from the garden and anchovies harvested from the sea. Others suggest that packets of rice wrapped in banana leaves were brought to padi fields (rice fields) for working farmers to consume. As Singapore developed, itinerant vendors would bring the banana-leaf wrapped rice door-to-door carried in baskets. Today it is a popular dish eaten not only at breakfast but also throughout the day.
