Chapalang Nasi Lemak

I can now proudly say I have attempted to cook my first Nasi Lemak. Nasi Lemak is a local favourite which consisted of coconut rice and ingredients like cucumber slices, small dried anchovies (ikan bilis), roasted peanuts, stir fried veggies, and hot spicy sauce (sambal). Nasi lemak can also come with any meat accompaniments such as chicken, cuttlefish, cockle, or beef curry and they are usually spicy.

My nasi lemak was slightly non-traditional so I called it Chapalang Nasi Lemak. "Chapalang" is a singlish word / local slang which means "everything, anything, a mix of all kinds of things together". And it was more of a convenience that I cooked it. I have some left over Sayur Lodeh, ikan bilis, roasted peanuts and brinjal. So I only need to cut up some cucumber, fry egg, fry chicken wings and cook the coconut rice. I stir-fried spicy garlic brinjal.

They say the chilli for Nasi Lemak must be so good that you can eat it on its own. That was my guide. I did not follow any recipe and I did not know how to make nasi lemak chilli. So I just use some sambal chilli, chopped onions, chopped canned pineapples, little sugar, little ketchup and fry them together. It had a very nice smell and a tangy appetising taste. And it was just nice to go with the fragrant coconut rice.