Coconut rice with sambal, fried anchovies, peanuts, cucumber and egg, eaten in Penang above all as a banana-leaf bungkus pyramid at breakfast.

Malaysia's national dish is a Malay farmhouse breakfast, rice enriched with coconut milk and pandan, made portable in banana-leaf pyramids sold from baskets. Penang's version leans on a sharper, darker sambal and small side-packet economics; Ali's stall at Sri Weld Food Court has turned the RM2.50 bungkus into a Michelin-listed queue. Upmarket kitchens now plate it with rendang or fried chicken, but the banana-leaf parcel remains the standard by which the city judges.

Where to eat Nasi lemak in Penang

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Make it at home

Serves Serves 41 hr 10 minEasy

Ingredients

  • 400g jasmine rice, rinsed
  • 300ml coconut milk plus 200ml water
  • 2 pandan leaves, knotted; 3 slices ginger; a pinch of salt
  • For sambal: 10 dried chillies, 6 shallots, 1 teaspoon belacan, 1 tablespoon tamarind water, 1 tablespoon sugar, 3 tablespoons oil
  • 80g dried anchovies (ikan bilis), fried crisp
  • 80g roasted peanuts
  • 4 eggs, hard-boiled or fried
  • Cucumber slices and banana leaves to serve

Method

  1. Cook the rice with coconut milk, water, pandan, ginger and salt until fluffy; rest it 10 minutes off the heat.
  2. Blend and fry the sambal ingredients over low heat for 15 minutes until the oil separates; balance sugar and tamarind so it is sweet then hot.
  3. Fry the anchovies until glassy-crisp and drain; roast the peanuts.
  4. Serve a scoop of rice with a spoon of sambal, anchovies, peanuts, egg and cucumber.
  5. For the full Penang effect, wrap portions in banana-leaf pyramids and let them sit 20 minutes so the leaf perfumes the rice.

Editor tip. The sambal must be cooked until the oil splits and the rawness of the shallots is gone; ten extra minutes over low heat is the difference.

Common allergens: Fish, Peanuts, Egg.