Nasi Lemak

'Recipe Plate'- Supermama.
Material: Food-safe melamine;
26.5cm in diameter.

Love nasi lemak sold by the makciks. Made for so many memorable childhood lunches. I don't care about the fish or chicken wing. I doubt there're any decent S$2 versions nowadays.

All that's required to make a good nasi lemak, is a thin piece of omelette, ikan bilis and toasted peanuts, and very good sambal. On the assumption that the cook knows precisely the ratio of coconut milk and water to rice grains.

There're also very few nasi lemak stalls that I fancy. Most makciks and their stalls are long gone. We can only have fabulous mee siam and nasi lemak from the friends' kitchens. I avoid eateries named Ponggol, Adam Road (even the 'original' at the hawker center), and I have a special dislike of Fong Seng since two decades ago. Currently, we zip to Boon Lay Power Nasi Lemak at Boon Lay Place hawker center, or Nasi Lemak Kukus that moved from Upper Thomson Road to its current Selegie location.

Yeah, there's this hip new nasi lemak eatery at Ann Siang Hill, but hey, we all can cook a mean version at home too. So on a weekend when we bothered to do it, we made a potluck out of it. Hosts J and L whipped up the fragrant nasi lemak and eggs. They used basmati rice. Yay. The also fried up chicken wings and drumlets, and ikan kuning. Can't believe that this tiny fish that I've eaten all my life is now endangered. I suppose we could replace ikan kuning with ikan tenggeri. What a pity that we didn't fish sustainably and a piece of childhood memory might fade.

The man and I contributed rendang daging. An easy dinner that hit all the right spots. I even asked for two eggs sunny-side up. Wheeeeeee. There were nyonya kueh, butter cookies from Jenny Bakery and a single-cask whisky from Westland for dessert. Busted my carb quota and had to have a quick late night trudge up and down the stairs to aid digestion. No regrets.