A little differently…

I cannot for the life of me understand the current craze here for nasi kak wok – it seems to have popped up in the menu of the Malay/Muslim shops here, there and everywhere. Unlike its Kelantanese counterpart, the nasi kerabu which I like a lot, I have tried it a few times here…and here again…and also here but it did not tickle my fancy – not something I would want to order again.

Another popular Kelantanese dish is the nasi ulam which I would love to try but it is not available here or not that I know of. I tried cooking my own once but I did not think it was all that great – maybe I did not get it right, I wouldn’t know so that day, when I saw a whole lot of rice left in the fridge, I decided to try again but this time around, I went about it a little differently.

Instead of serving it cold, tossed with all the herbs and leaves and what not, I fried it so perhaps we should call it nasi ulam goreng instead. I started off cooking the sambal udang kering (dried prawns) by frying the pounded ingredients – shallots, garlic, kunyit (turmeric), lengkuas (galangal) and chili with stalks of serai (lemon grass) added…followed eventually by the pounded udang kering with belacan (dried prawn paste). Once that was done, I added some curry leaves and then, the rice and eggs and mixed everything well together.  Finally, I added some salt, chopped spring onions (since I have a lot in my garden) and Thai basil leaves before dishing everything out. I could have added some of my daun kesum and sawtooth coriander as well but I did not, in case my girl would get put off by the strong fragrances.

It turned out really nice – everyone enjoyed it but there was so much so I heated up the left over…

…the next morning for breakfast.

I fried an omelette and wrapped the rice…

…in it…

…so it became what I would call nasi ulam goreng Pattaya…

…and served it with the leftover sambal udang petai…

…that I bought home the previous day and yes, it was indeed very nice.

I would still want to try the nasi ulam though, should I happen to come across any, so I would be able to know for sure as to how good it actually is…and whether it is nicer than my nasi ulam goreng…

…or not.