After-hours nasi lemak for the hungry
Around 8pm, most of the tables were taken up already.
KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 — Ask any Malaysian to name his favourite local food and nasi lemak will likely be mentioned. The steaming hot fragrant rice cooked with coconut cream, served with spicy and delicious sambal, fried ikan bilis and nuts plus the refreshing slices of cucumber make nasi lemak a favourite meal for many of us.
But there is no hard and fast rule about when or how you can have your nasi lemak. Be it wrapped in banana leaves to seal in the flavour or served on a plate with extras like mouth-watering beef rendang or fiery sambal sotong, nasi lemak can be savoured at breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner or supper too.
Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa's authentic kampung-style sambal is unassumingly fiery but addictive.
It’s easy to find nasi lemak in the mornings and afternoons but what if you have a sudden craving for nasi lemak close to midnight? Here are some of the popular night-time nasi lemak joints I scoured in the Klang Valley for you to check out when the sun goes down.
The name Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa is familiar among nasi lemak lovers.
Established in 1973, the original restaurant is located in the busy, brightly lit village-within-the-city — Kampung Baru.
With narrow roads where barely two vehicles can pass through and crowded warungs, the place is vibrant with city buzz mixed with the quaint charm of a kampung. Since it was my first time venturing into that area, it took a few wrong turns before we found the famous Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa which now has expanded into a franchise with branches across the Klang Valley.
Humble and small, it looks very different from the modern franchises I saw in Bangsar and Kota Damansara but the signboard has the same font so I figured we were at the right place.
There are many add-ons you can find at Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa such as rendang, paru goreng, sambal sotong and more. A man behind the sea of add-ons asked as I walked into the restaurant, “Makan sini atau bungkus?”
I said I was eating in and he scooped the piping hot rice onto a plate and added the basics: anchovies, nuts, cucumber and sambal. I was spoilt for choice with the large selection of add-ons and I finally decided on a hard-boiled egg and beef rendang. If you go for the basics, the nasi lemak costs just RM1.50 but with my beef rendang, hard-boiled egg and drink, the price of my meal was RM7.80 which is reasonable for KL. There weren’t many tables at the place but it is comfortable and even without air-conditioning, it was cool because it was about 8pm.
The rice was fluffy and aromatic. When accompanied with the sambal, it is deliciously satisfying on the palate because the spiciness of the sambal is rounded out by the fragrant rice. Slightly sweet, the sambal is a deceiving little fellow. It was only after a few unassuming spoonfuls of the sambal and rice that I began to feel the burn at the back of my throat as I swallowed.
I love spicy food and even though sometimes I perspire or my tongue burns when I eat a spicy dish, I enjoy the kick. But Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa’s sambal does not give you warning. The first few spoonfuls, you think “Yeah, I can handle this. Let me just add more sambal”, and then it creeps up on you and surprises you. Thankfully, the cucumber cooled down my tongue and after finding out about the power of the sambal, I slowed down a little. The condiments were fresh — anchovies and nuts roasted perfectly and even the egg was nicely done. The beef rendang was good but not the best.
Nobody actually knows the name of the place but it has been referred to as Nasi Lemak Maybank or Nasi Lemak Seapark or a combination of both names.
What I liked most about Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa’s sambal was that it reminded me of the authentic nasi lemak bungkus sold in my primary school for 50 sen. It had a distinctive taste that is hard to find in nasi lemak nowadays, the kampung-style sambal I loved. Now with the new recipes, you find sweet sambal or the Chinese-style sambal which is less spicy.
It was 6pm on a Sunday evening when I brought my “I-don’t-eat-spicy-food” friend with me to Nasi Lemak Maybank Sea Park. Nobody knows the name of the place but this nasi lemak joint got its name because the tables and chairs are set up in front of a Maybank branch in Sea Park. It opens at 5pm but the place wasn’t fully occupied yet.
The sweet sambal served at Nasi Lemak Maybank Seapark may be popular but I personally dislike sweet sambal.
You only see the crowd from 10pm onwards and it’s good to know that it opens till 4am. The service is impeccable. The minute my friend and I found a spot, the guy appeared out of nowhere to get our order. I ordered a Nasi Lemak Biasa and my friend ordered Nasi Lemak Ayam Goreng. The food came within minutes.
Since she can’t eat spicy food, my friend scooped all of her sambal and put it on my plate, so now I had two servings of sambal. Let’s see if it is as spicy as Antarabangsa’s. My Nasi Lemak Biasa comes with cucumber, roasted anchovies and nuts and a sunny side-up served on top of the bed of fluffy fragrant coconut cream rice and a dollop of sambal.
The rice is lighter than Antarabangsa’s and less starchy. I found the sambal to be sweet and not spicy at all. So it was no surprise that I could finish two portions of sambal without breaking a sweat.
Overall, I think Nasi Lemak Maybank Sea Park is good and I can see why it is so popular with PJ folks. But I still like Antarabangsa’s traditional sambal that is not too sweet but deadly.
For RM2.50, the Nasi Lemak Biasa at Maybank Sea Park is value-for-money because it comes with the egg without extra charge. If you ordered the Ayam Goreng (which is the usual order among the frequent patrons), it’s an additional RM2. Having tried the ayam goreng before, I can say it is pretty good fried chicken, with the outside crispy and the meat coming off the bones easily using a fork and spoon. If you like sweet, not-too-spicy sambal and fragrant fluffy rice, then Nasi Lemak Maybank Seapark is where you should go.
Open from 5pm to 5am is the inconspicuous Nasi Lemak Famous at Bangsar Selera food court. By its name you can tell that it is rather popular and judging by the amount of people there at 6.30pm on a weekday, it’s no casual boast. I heard about this place after talking to some people and apparently it is very good. I had never heard of it before but I didn’t mind giving it a shot.
The corner stall in Bangsar Selera offers plenty of side dishes to add to your nasi lemak. Kerang is apparently the favourite here.
A simple, small stall at the corner of Bangsar Selera, you can identify it by the sign hanging from the ceiling with “Nasi Lemak Famous” on it. Walking up towards the stall, I see they have a large selection of side dishes that can rival Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa’s. According to the lady at the stall, the kerang is a popular favourite. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the mood for kerang so I just took a bit of beef rendang, some rempah and sambal ikan bilis on top of my basic nasi lemak dish. For plain nasi lemak that includes cucumber, anchovies, nuts and half boiled egg, it’s about RM2.
Nasi Lemak Famous' sambal is slightly sweet and not spicy at all which may appeal to the tastebuds of many.
Comparing the three nasi lemak places I visited, the prices are about the same when you factor in the egg at Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa — a range of about RM2 to RM2.50 for nasi lemak biasa. So, back to Nasi Lemak Famous. The rice is fantastic — fragrant and the grains were separate. But the most crucial ingredient in nasi lemak is the sambal and tasting the sambal here, it has a bit of the kampung-style taste of Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa and it is a little sweet but not as sweet as Nasi Lemak Maybank Seapark.
For a moment, I couldn’t decide whether I liked Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa better or Nasi Lemak Famous better. I asked the opinion of my friend who, coincidentally does not eat spicy food as well (I swear, I wasn’t planning to torture all my non-spicy eating friends!). She took some sambal to try and she said it wasn’t spicy at all and it was sweet.
Yes, I did realise it wasn’t spicy. And I was anticipating the spiciness to creep in like how Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa’s did but nope, no surprises here. I don’t find it that sweet though, just a little.
After finishing my meal, I decided that Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa actually tasted better, mainly because it was spicy and also had the genuine Malay kampong-style taste. Having said that, I do find Nasi Lemak Famous’ roasted anchovies and nuts crunchy and delicious. I can’t believe after all these years, I didn’t discover Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa sooner. Now I know where to get the best nasi lemak at night.
Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa
7C Jalan Raja Muda Musa,
Kampung Baru,
Kuala Lumpur.
Opening hours: 6pm-5am daily.
Nasi Lemak Maybank Sea Park
24-42 Jalan 21/17,
Sea Park,
Petaling Jaya.
GPS Co-ordinates 3.109555, 101.622338
Opening hours: 5pm-4am daily.
Nasi Lemak Famous
Bangsar Selera Food Court,
Jalan Telawi 1,
Kuala Lumpur.
Opening hours: 5pm-5am daily.