-My friend said that one time,
she was trying to make
a shrimp paste,
and it's, like,
such a strong smell.
Her neighbors called the cops
on her and was like,
"Ah, they must be
killing some people.
There must be a corpse inside."
♪♪
♪♪
Hi, everyone.
My name is Kyo Pang, and I'm
a chef and owner at Kopitiam.
Today, I'm going to make
the nasi lemak,
which the national dish
in Malaysia.
To start, we have to make
the base for the ikan bilis,
which is the anchovies,
in Malay language.
Starting off, we will have to
blend the shallots,
the garlics,
and also the anchovies,
and then put it on the side.
This shallot.
It looks like onion.
Going to give it a little kick.
Baba Nyonya cuisine
is the first generations
of the fusion cuisines
in Southeast Asia.
The Baba Nyonyas
are the street Chinese.
We combine the cooking knowledge
from China,
the Portuguese, the English,
the local Malay, and also India.
So now I'm going to blend
the shallots and the garlic.
I will add the anchovies
into it.
Make sure that the anchovies
is always dry.
Otherwise, you'll kind of, like,
destroy the taste of it.
♪♪
Trust me, the paste
doesn't look very pretty,
but once you mix them
all together later,
it will become
something very pretty.
I promise. [ Chuckles ]
Growing up in Malaysia,
there a lot of people
working by the piers.
We used to wrap this nasi lemak
in banana leaves,
and people would just grab them
and they'd go,
but they were so good.
After you blend,
this is how it looks like.
Next thing we're going to do
the chilies.
I'm going to cut the head off.
If Kopitiam was a person,
that should be a grandfather
or a grandmother that
you haven't seen in a long time.
Whenever you see them, whether
you're in a good mood or not,
they always greet you
with the same type of energies
and always feed you and say,
"Oh, like, eat this."
This is the dry chili,
and these are the red chilies
that I call
this the sweet chilies.
Then that one
is the Thai chilies,
and in our language, we call it
[Speaks foreign language],
which is, like,
the spiciest chilies.
So same thing,
I take off from the top.
The spiciness depends on how
much you want to put this in.
I usually don't like to put
that much of the small chilies
because you will get spicier.
We're going to start blending.
And then when
you start blending,
there's always an option for
some people, the shrimp paste.
We call it the belachans,
has a very strong smell.
It's an option for you
to put it inside here
while you blend
the chilies or not.
The belachan itself
is very salty
and has a really strong taste.
Don't use too much of it.
Depends on
how much that you want.
You can see the color
becomes darker.
Then we're going to
take them out.
And then the next thing is that
when we mix everything together,
we kind of add in
tamarind paste.
The tamarind paste has to seep,
so the best way to strain them
is to use the boiling hot water.
But try not to put so much water
from the very beginning.
You want to make sure
that you're getting
the concentrate water out of it.
Then you add in my thyme.
Some of my recipes started
from my great-grandmother
because my parents, they were
both arranged marriage,
and the family were known
for making different dishes.
When someone asks me
what is the most important tools
in the kitchens,
I usually say the hands
because it is the main bridge
that connects your food
and your soul.
After you think that you've kind
of, like, strained everything,
and you see, like,
only the seed,
then you can just kind of, like,
leave this alone.
You can see, like,
this one is pretty concentrate.
But tamarind is very sour,
so I like to balance it
with the sugar
so it give it
a stronger caramel taste.
And then this is all heat up.
The next things that we're
going to do is put the oil.
The amount of oil is enough
to cover the surface of it.
You don't want your chilies
to be too oily because later on,
we're going to fry the anchovies
and also the peanuts,
which contains
a lot of oils itself already.
So we pan sear the one
with the heavy taste first.
You don't really have to use
all of them
unless you are doing,
like, a big amount,
and that's when you do.
This are the chilies that we
already blend with the belachan,
so now that we kind of
mix it into it.
Same thing -- you don't have to
put everything in it,
but if you want, then you could.
[ Chuckles ] It's the spiciness.
But just make sure
that the chilies
is enough
to cover, like, the anchovies.
Then the last thing is
you put the tamarind
and the tamarind paste.
Nasi lemak is like you think
that you are
not going to like it
because people always
misunderstood anchovies.
They think that anchovies
is something
that, ugh, you know,
like, you open from a can,
and it scare people away.
So this one,
you just have to keep cooking
until it gets more caramelized.
Then I usually taste and see
if there's anything
that I want to adjust,
whether I want it
a little bit sweeter.
Trust me, it doesn't look
interesting, the paste, never,
but when you put them together,
you see differently.
I like the way that
my grandmother always tell me
the stories about something
so that
I would start liking the things
that you are making.
She would be like,
"You know, like, sometimes,
there are people that
you don't like their characters,
something about them
you don't like.
But without that,
they are not them."
When it comes to your food,
it's the same thing.
Okay, you can see that
the colors start showing up.
And then, for me, like, here
is not enough sweetness,
so I would just add
a little bit more sugar
to make it more caramelized.
♪♪
Like you can see, like,
all this good, old red things
is from the chili oil.
Just remember to control
the temperature of the fire
so that it doesn't over-burn it.
I like to keep this on the side
overnight before I use it.
It makes it easier to blend it
in because if these are hot,
after you fry the anchovies
and everything
so they also create heat,
as well,
so when you mix it together,
it has the water
that will make the anchovies
and the peanuts soft,
which I try to prevent.
Okay, think it's about done.
So the next thing we're going to
do is the coconut rice.
We just have to rinse it.
This are the Thai jasmine rice.
So we kind of do this
a little bit but not too strong.
You have to be soft and gentle,
and then you throw
this water off
and then rinse it
for one more time.
So after I rinse it
for two times,
I restrain this,
and then here it goes.
Then we're going to put it
into the rice cooker,
and this is the pandan leaves.
We used it a lot in our cooking.
You can get them
in the supermarket.
It usually comes in frozen.
I like to cut the back off.
You tie a knot so that
it's easier for you to remove it
after you are done cooking.
It's the Southeast Asian
type of vanilla leaves.
You feel like it's sweet.
It smells very mellow,
but at the same time,
it is so comfortable,
and then you put that, like,
right in the middle,
then pour the water.
And here is the salt.
Personally, I like sea salt.
So just put, like, a pinch.
The reason why that
we put the salt is because
when it's cooked,
the rice is going to be so rich
because you're going to pour
the coconut milk in it.
When something is too rich,
you'll feel like, "Oh," like,
"This is too much
for me to handle,"
but the salt is the magic that
will tone down a little bit.
We're going to cook it and then
wait for the rice to be done.
So the next thing is that
we will boil the eggs.
While those are boiling,
for peanuts,
the fast way is maybe, like,
1 minute right after
you pour the oil,
then you start
putting the peanuts.
The nasi lemak is like
a combinations of everything.
So it's like in Malaysia,
we have multi-races --
Chinese, we have Malay.
We have Indians
like the baba nyonya,
the Serani,
the Iban, the Kadazans.
And then the nasi lemak is also
like something
that makes it whole.
It's combinations of everything
to become one.
By the time it start boiling,
then the peanuts is ready.
We let it, like, spread out
because the temperature
will still go on,
and it will let it spread.
So now it's 7 minutes.
We can turn the eggs off
and then rinse it
with cold water.
So here is the anchovies.
For some people
who doesn't know,
these are all
the female anchovies.
[ Chuckles ]
The male anchovies
is a lot darker,
a lot tougher,
and a lot cheaper.
If you're not sure about
the temperature of the oil,
you can just throw one
and see...
Like, this is probably
not hot enough.
So when you do have, like,
some bubbly in it, you can hear,
like, [Hisses] that's when
it's about ready, yeah?
Growing up, I loved anchovies
so much that I would be like,
"Oh," like,
"I want extra anchovies."
And if you think that the oil,
there's not enough,
you can always add
more oil in it.
After we fried it,
I turn off the heat.
Now is the time to strain it
because you can still see
some of the oil is still here.
And then put some Bounty
right there
and then you can start
pouring it over.
Trying to figure out
if that a male or female,
but it's, like, tiny.
It's like a Nemo right here.
Now, we put the anchovies
in the mixing bowl.
On top of this paper is things
that you don't want them to be
in your bowl.
So your anchovies is still
nice and clean.
Put the peanuts.
This is the sambal paste
that we made earlier.
You can mix it.
Don't put everything
in one shot.
Mix it as you go.
Make sure that everything
was covered.
The reason why you shouldn't
put everything in it
is because you don't want that
to be too saucy.
You just want to be, like,
the right, perfect amount.
You always have to be
very gentle.
If you kind of mash it, it's
going to be powder anchovies.
So you can see,
I didn't even use all of them.
Then it's already mixed
and covered.
And then here is the rice.
We can take this out because
the rice already absorbed
the flavor from the pandan.
And this is the coconut,
so just pour it in.
Anything that was cooked
with the coconut,
it give you a very strong,
creamy flavors.
Those are considered
[Speaks foreign language]
[Speaks foreign language]
means "rich."
And then you let it steam
for a little bit
so that the rice will absorb
the flavor of the coconut.
The cucumber -- this type
of cucumber would be ideal.
These are the cucumber
that people usually use it
for Japanese cuisines
or any other salads
because they have
less seeds in it.
They are crunchier
and a little bit sweeter.
That's why I like
to use this one.
Can cut off the top end
and the bottom
and slice it into half.
You don't have to
cut all of them.
We only use eight slice.
These are the eggs
that we cooked earlier,
so you can crack them...
and put it on the side
as for garnish.
You can find these banana leaves
at most of the Chinese stores,
Vietnamese stores.
You can always cut in,
like, this size.
The reason why we use
banana leaves is because
banana leaves represent
how it was in Malaysia.
People actually eat that leaves.
Everybody says, "Oh!"
I remember one customer,
and she was like,
"Everything was great,
but at the end,
I thought it was seaweed,
and it's a little bit bitter.
I was like [Chuckles]
Then she was like, "Oh,
I'm not supposed to eat it?"
And I was like,
"Yeah, you're not supposed to."
This is how we plate it.
I put this on the bottom,
put the rice and press them.
It's, like,
1/3 of the anchovy mix
and 2/3 of the rice.
Then here you go.
Ta-da! [ Chuckles ]
And then you put the cucumber.
And why is it eight?
Because eight is a lucky number
for our beliefs.
The next things is the egg.
♪♪
Ta-da.
See, it's like a smiley face.
And, yes, here is nasi lemak.
♪♪
I like to have
a bite of the rice
together with the anchovies
and the peanuts first,
and then add a little bit
of the cucumber
and add a little bit
of the eggs.
So it totally depends
on how you want to eat it.
♪♪
It remind me about the day
that my dad brought me
to get this nasi lemak,
and when I opened up
the second one,
and I feels like,
"Damn, I'm eating so much,
second plate?"
But after that,
I realized that, oh,
it's okay to eat two or three.
No one judges you.
For nasi lemak's recipe,
click the link below.
If you don't want to
make this at home,
you're always welcome
to Kopitiam,
and we will serve this to you.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
