Nasi Lemak is probably the most boring looking plate you might get in Singapore but it packs a huge amount of flavour in its different elements. Trust me.
Originating in Malaysia, this dish brings together fried chicken, coconut rice, fried egg, dried/fried anchovies, and sambal (a sweet and sometimes slightly spicy sauce). If you’re lucky the odd cucumber slice might be tossed in for good measure.
I found my way to Changi Village (it’s out there Jerry) and queued up at the popular Mizzy Corner to grab my Nasi Lemak. They have a couple of different versions but I just went with the original fried chicken one at $3.50. You can see the different options beside each yellow letter on their stall display.
The fried chicken was succulent and the fried skin gave way into the juicy white meat underneath perfectly. I found that mixing up the different food types led to the best results taste-wise. A little chicken, a little rice, a little sambal? Lovely. A little rice, a little egg, a little anchovies, a little sambal? Beautiful. A bit of cucumber, some chicken, a little egg, and sambal? Not bad at all. The sambal binded a lot of the different foods together into cohesive taste bundles. The anchovies acted as a french fry of sorts with a hint of fishiness but mainly added some nice crunch to a mostly soft dish (even the fried chicken skin had a softness to it).
I just ended up blending everything together with my fork just to get all Forrest Gump on the dish (you never know what you gonna gid). Nasi Lemak is a great stop-gap dish to keep you going during the day as the different elements make up one satisfying but not overly filling dish and you’ll be ready to tackle dinner in a couple (or 5) hours. I recommend!
Changi Village is also a place that is pretty cool and steeped in history. I’ll let you read the small print. Click for bigger below.
