Still got the blues…

My regular Malay kuih stall at Bandong had not been selling the Kelantan nasi kerabu for a long long time – the ones where the rice is blue in colour…and the other day, I saw on Facebook my daughter eating that all the way in Wellington, New Zealand. Sigh!!!

Imagine my delight when I stopped by the stall the other day and found that they were selling just that! Nasi kerabu…

…but the rice was not blue! According to the lady, the one making it, originally from Johore, could not get hold of the flower, bunga telang (blue pea/butterfly pea) that they use for the blue colour and she did not want to use artificial colouring and used kunyit (tumeric) instead, hence the yellow colour.

For RM3.50, I got the rice with the thinly-sliced ulam (raw vegetables) and the fish and grated coconut kerisik (floss)…

*Oops! Sorry, pic a bit blurry!*

…and the sambal (sauce)…

Wait a minute! Where was the stinky air budu (fermented salted fish sauce)? It would not be the same without that! Perhaps the lady had mixed it together with the sambal. And where was the fried fish…and the stuffed green chili? Where was the bergedil ikan (fishcake)? I had those before here and here…plus it was only RM3.00 then but that was over a year ago so the price increase should come as no surprise at all. Tsk! Tsk!

Anyway, I poured the sauce over the rice…

…and mixed everything thoroughly before eating it.

Well, I must say it was very nice. The chicken had a special fragrance – like it had been marinated with serai (lemon grass) or something like that. On the whole, I think this would go down very well with the less adventurous who may not like any kind  of peculiar smell or taste in their food.

Anyway, I went back to the stall a few days later to voice my grievances and according to the lady, the one making the nasi kerabu would have fried fish instead of chicken on some days and she told me that the air budu was already in the sambal…as can be seen in the plastic bag in this photograph…

…and she drew my attention that there was also some sambal cili (pounded chili) added as well.

I ended up buying a packet to give it another try…

…but unfortunately, there did not seem to be any difference from what I had previously.

The final verdict, therefore, would be that it certainly was nice enough to tickle one’s delight but at RM3.50 a packet, I probably would think twice and  not have that very regularly, I’m afraid.