Steamed rice flooded with layered curries, banjir style, and paired with fried chicken, sotong or okra, served fast from rows of pots at Tamil Muslim canteens.

Nasi kandar takes its name from the kandar pole Tamil Muslim traders used to balance rice and curry pots as they walked George Town's docks in the 1800s. Hameediyah moved the trade indoors on Campbell Street in 1907 and is recorded by the Malaysia Book of Records as the country's oldest nasi kandar restaurant, while Line Clear's open-air alley off Jalan Penang, running around the clock, made the format a national obsession. Ordering is a spoken art: name your rice, your protein, and say banjir if you want every curry to flood the plate.

Where to eat Nasi kandar in Penang

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Make it at home

Serves Serves 41 hr 30 minIntermediate

Ingredients

  • 600g chicken pieces on the bone
  • 3 tablespoons meat curry powder mixed to a paste with water
  • 2 onions, sliced; 4 cloves garlic and 4cm ginger, pounded
  • 2 sprigs curry leaves
  • 200ml coconut milk
  • 2 tomatoes, quartered
  • 1 tablespoon tamarind paste
  • 8 okra, blanched
  • Steamed white rice for four
  • Oil and salt

Method

  1. Fry onions, garlic, ginger and curry leaves in oil until golden. Add the curry paste and fry until the oil splits out.
  2. Add chicken, coat well, then add coconut milk, tomatoes, tamarind and a cup of water. Simmer 40 minutes uncovered.
  3. Season with salt; the gravy should be loose enough to flood rice, not cling like a dry curry.
  4. Serve a mound of rice, lay chicken and okra alongside, then ladle gravy over everything, mixing two spoonfuls from different corners of the pot if you have them.
  5. Eat with your hand or a spoon, mixing as you go; the point is the blend, not the separation.

Editor tip. Real stalls mix several days-deep curries on one plate; at home, make the gravy a day ahead so it deepens overnight before you flood the rice.

Common allergens: Varies by curry; commonly dairy and shellfish.