Nasi lemak to die for

A makeshift stall at the centre of Kampung Baru in Sungai Buloh is making a name for itself with its speciality

Kampung Baru in Sungai Buloh has been receiving some media attention recently but for all the wrong reasons. But here’s a piece of good news.

There is a makeshift stall at the centre of the small village that sells “nasi lemak pandan kukus”. Frankly, I am not a big fan of nasi lemak but I will allow myself a plateful of the sambal, anchovies and curry sotong now and then.

So when I cruised past this stall in the middle of the Kampung Baru town, my “co-navigator” exclaimed “stop, looks like great nasi lemak”. Since I was in no mood to argue with a hungry person, I brought the car to an abrupt halt.

The guy in charge called himself Tok Mat but he doesn’t really look that old to be called “Tok”. He looked liked someone in the late 50s or early 60s. Tok Mat was a jovial guy who was talkative and funny at the same time.

He humbly admitted he was not in charge although he seemed to be giving orders to his daughter and a guy who looked like his son. “She’s the manager,” he laughed, pointing at his daughter.

“I just help to fry the chicken. One can’t simply put the chicken in the wok with oil and be impatient about it. Otherwise, the chicken would look nice on the outside and still a bit raw on the inside,” he commented.

How true, I thought. Here was a man who knew his fried chicken. He happily added that he used to carry out his business in Kota Damansara but that didn’t work out. Business was slow there.

Then he mentioned another kampung nearby. There, too, the going was discouraging. Finally, he took a chance with Kampung Baru, Sungai Buloh.

Suddenly, his business took off. “The Chinese here love my nasi lemak. To them, money wasn’t an issue. So long as the dish is excellent, they will pay,” he said confidently.

Seven variations

Altogether Tok Mat had seven variations of his home-cooked nasi lemak. Beginning with “nasi lemak kukus biasa” which costs RM1.50, Tok Mat also took great pride in promoting the “nasi lemak kukus dengan ayam berempah”.

That nasi lemak special costs RM4.50. It didn’t even come close to be labelled as expensive, at least not in my books. The big container of nasi lemak had a wonderful aroma. Embedded in the rice were pandan leaves.

While we were having a nice buddy conversation, Tok Mat was eyeing his chicken in the wok. We had earlier said we wanted really “fresh fried chicken”. So he gave us a rundown of what it was like to produce fried chicken of the finest quality.

Then Tok Mat imparted some sound advice against consuming too much “kari kambing” because it might be too much for those who were prone to gout. He jokingly said that if a large portion of this particular dish was taken, within an hour, the person could feel a “twitching in his big toe”.

Both of us had a good laugh. He must have had some experience with that, otherwise he wouldn’t be so graphic about that ailment.

Since it was not the time of day to sit and eat, we just ordered a couple of takeaways and kept our fingers crossed about the much acclaimed nasi lemak as advertised on the banner.

An hour later at home, we sat down to have our first taste of Tok Mat’s speciality. True to his word, the nasi lemak pandan kukus was easily the best I have tasted in the last five years.

Looks like I have to re-establish rapport with Tok Mat soon. I now know the short cut to that place.

“Nasi lemak pandan kukus dengan ayam berempah”is right at the top of my agenda. I am sure Tok Mat will be happy to see me again.

I simply love a man who loves to eat and knows how to make great nasi lemak. Thank god, there are still people like Tok Mat out there. They are a vanishing breed.