Nothing brings Malaysians together quite like nasi lemak, bungkus or regular, does. Remember the crispy chicken rendang debacle in 2018? A Malaysian-born contestant on Masterchef UK had presented the judges with a plate of nasi lemak with chicken rendang, in which one of the judges made a comment about the chicken not being crispy enough. In true Malaysian fashion, netizens flocked to social media to defend the chef.
While rendang is commonly served with nasi lemak, those in need of a filling meal on-the-go will opt for something much simpler: nasi lemak bungkus— no extravagant side dishes, just coconut rice, sambal, fried peanuts, anchovies, and if you’re lucky, half a boiled egg.
Nasi lemak is a dish you can have for any meal. It’s balanced, tasty, and readily available at roadside stalls, restaurants, and even train and petrol stations. If you don’t have time to make breakfast in the morning, don’t worry about it. It’s extremely common for office workers to pick up a pack of nasi lemak bungkus on the way to work.
This showdown will compare 3 different packets of nasi lemak that you can get at 3 very different places. The first contender is Suri Nasi Lemak Panas, a popular hawker stall in Petaling Jaya that starts serving fresh nasi lemak as early as 8am everyday. Next, we have the nasi lemak bungkus offered at Mesra, the convenience store attached to most Petronas gas stations. The final contestant is Bungkus Kaw Kaw, a mall franchise that’s recently gained a lot of popularity for its local delicacies.
Suri Nasi Lemak Panas
Visually, Suri Nasi Lemak Panas’ nasi lemak bungkus is the closest to what you’d get from a roadside stall (probably because it literally is a hawker stall itself). This is what you’d expect when you finally get to dig into your already cold breakfast in the office pantry.
For RM2, you get a heaping scoop of rice, half an egg, and sambal. I had high hopes for this one, as I believed that food from hawker stalls always tastes better than its commercialised counterparts. Unfortunately, I was promptly let down upon first bite.
The coconut rice lacked the most important component that constitutes a delicious plate of nasi lemak— the santan flavour. Not even a smidge of coconut milk was detected, making it taste like regular white rice. What a letdown.
Thankfully, the sambal was slightly better. I wouldn’t say that it saved the dish in any way, but it definitely improved the overall eating experience. The sambal certainly had some spiciness to it, but it was also very sweet. I felt like it was sweeter than it was spicy.
Cafe Mesra
If you’re one to fill up your vehicle before work, you’ve probably seen Cafe Mesra’s range of on-the-go meals and snacks catered towards the busy bees of Malaysia. The packaging was gorgeous with the e dish being wrapped in paper with colourful printed batik motifs, as if nasi lemak isn’t indicative enough of our culture. This beautiful packaging probably contributed to its heftier price tag— RM4.80 a pop.
In all honesty, this was the one I had the lowest hopes for, because how good can gas station nasi lemak be, right? Here, I shall admit that I was proven wrong.
Surprisingly, the rice had a good amount of santan. The aroma was sufficient to taste the presence of coconut milk, but it didn’t leave a remarkable impression.As for the sambal, it was equally sweet and savoury. However, it lacked the depth of flavour. It was just that, sweet and salty.
Mesra also loses a point for not wrapping their nasi lemak in a banana leaf.
Bungkus Kaw Kaw
This particular nasi lemak bungkus sent me on a rollercoaster ride of emotions. My first thought when I opened the packet was “why is it yellow?”. First things first, I wouldn’t label myself as a nasi lemak purist. I believe that the beauty of the dish is that it’s like a blank canvas where you can add anything you want— sambal udang, beef rendang, you name it. But for a simple version of it with just sambal, what’s going on?
As a franchise, it’s expected that Bungkus Kaw Kaw’s nasi lemak is also slightly pricier than a hawker stall’s. That being said, theirs had more ingredients that Mesra’s. For RM4.60, you get rice, sambal, fried peanuts, and actual fried anchovies and cucumber slices. The previous ones didn’t have the latter 2 ingredients.
I started off at a low due to its unique tinge of colour, then experienced a boost when I saw the anchovies and cucumber. They say that what goes up must come down, and the dip I felt came after my 3rd bite.
Only after a few tries did I realise that the salty taste didn’t come from the sambal, but from the rice itself. This means that I couldn’t even get rid of the saltiness by scraping the sambal off (not that I could anyway, since the sambal had already gotten everywhere).
This was also when I noticed that the yellow tint was in fact, turmeric, which I assume they added loads of into the sambal. They used so much turmeric to the point that the whole dish just tasted like the ingredient. Don’t get me wrong, I love turmeric. There’s nothing better than ayam goreng kunyit, but I wasn’t expecting my nasi lemak to taste like nothing but that.
Life is about new experiences, and this was definitely one of them.
Verdict
Sidenote: I know that most get their nasi lemak bungkus fix from roadside stalls in their neighbourhoods, so this showdown may not be an accurate representation of this grab-and-go breakfast dish. I also know that a lot of people’s favourite chain is Saleha, which can be found at a few LRT stations. I fully intended on trying out Saleha’s nasi lemak, but they were sold out by the time I arrived.
To sum it up, all 3 versions of nasi lemak were not that great. However, the clear winner is Mesra as their nasi lemak bungkus actually tasted like nasi lemak. Other than that, I personally thought that it was just average. The main reason why Mesra reigns champion is because the other 2 were quite disappointing.
What’s your favourite nasi lemak bungkus?
Nasi Lemak Tanglin: Home-cooked fluffy nasi lemak with shiok sambal since 1948, opens at 7am
