TL;DR: Lemak does something that I have not come across much with Malaysian cooking, and that is adequately replicate the famous hawker stalls. Upon getting that idea in mind, you can fully appreciate the attention and focus to several signature dishes, by getting them as good as they can be. For once, the portion was a generous one that fit my stomach like a glove.
After a funny period - lacking a better descriptor - I was able to be back in the groove with my routine. All those WWE PPV events to come, I now have several delivery options at my disposal, and we arrived at the next one in line. This show was Backlash, and I prepared in advance for a nice meal.
It is by no means the maiden voyage on my part, Deliveroo was the chosen one for this errand. I went through the list of options, opting for ones not reached by Uber, and struck some success (there will be more in the future, believe that). It was Lemak, which is a gem of a place. Street food is the name of the game like it is right from the bustling markets somewhere in Malaysia.
I will have to give props to customer service. The entire operations was a quick and clean affair, right from the beginning with the cooking and preparation, all the way to finally delivering the goods. The driver was hard-working, with several drop-offs happening with each trip; he even had an MO with dropping off the food and maneuvering around the streets.
A habit with Malaysian restaurants that I have found is having menus the size of phonebooks. This time around, the case was the inverse. It has all been kept simple via their focus and making sure each dish is as tasty as it can be.
While trying not to salivate over the phone while placing the order, my ultimate choice was relatively easy. It had to be a nasi lemak - it is in the name of the restaurant - and fried rice was the base. Everybody knows fried chicken is nigh impossible to turn down, and that was my choice.
Each nasi lemak came with a few seasonings. For the fried rice options, the condiments begin with tiny prawns in which I couldn't even detect (thank heavens I am not allergic to them). After the shrimp seasoning, there is a cucumber salad. ..... It's cucumber, pretty much the most nothing vegetable on the planet. Giving it a delicious flavour and texture were a handful of freshly roasted peanuts. Lastly, there was a hard-boiled egg cut in half plus the characteristic sambal olek. Combine those latter two, and it is pretty tasty. For good measure, I threw in anchovies (love them, enough said) and curry sauce. Whether the sauce was needed or not, it gave the meal a little bit more spice - sincerely, a spice fiend.
There is a need for words above generous these days, not unlike tremendous and fantastic being more defined versions of "good". One reason is that I have said it a lot recently; when I have said it, the extent of a generous serve has varied. Most of the time, I would have left satiated though not overtly full; this was one time where I was practically at capacity by the end.
We have all had so many trials with takeout from various locations. While it would not have come to attention, what was apparent was the breathing room in the package for the food. This time around, they packed the box (albeit a small one all-round) to the brim. That seemingly small size was deceiving, and I could tell from the moment I picked it up - this was one dense meal.
At least for me, that is always bound to be a plus. That is if the food is of decent quality, and the good news is that it was. I don't know how the chefs cooked it, but they managed to pack the rice in so well. While packing the rice in, and preparing it, every single crevice was bursting with some flavour.
There is one aspect of rice meals that I have noticed recently. It is in particular when the cooks want to cheapen their prices, and that is where they go heavy on the rice. Either that or they are a little light on the meat, all which creates an imbalance on the meal. That is not too bad, except usually the rice is steamed, and you can only have so much of that without needing something to accompany it. That wasn't such the case here, curry sauce notwithstanding.
Last and certainly not least, we get to the meat - this time, absolutely literal - of the meal, and that was the fried chicken. Not unlike a dish from the Deep South in the United States, this meal revolved around two pieces of chicken. And they did not go safe either, opting right for some industrial pieces of chicken. That is how I like it, mainly since that allows for a lot more flavour. The chicken meat was most tender and juicy, getting assisted by the skin trapping in all inside. However, the fried chicken is nothing with a suitable coating that is hot and well-seasoned. The cooks were bringing their A-game that day since I could have just had these two bits of meat and been satisfied at that moment.
Also thrown in for good measure was a couple of nibbles. These were samosas and chicken satays. The samosas were yet another instance I could have taken or left them. From a gauge of their size, they looked akin to the cocktail variety found in the supermarket freezer; if they were as such, that does not bode well. On the other hand, the amount served up was considerate and generous. Nevertheless, the better of the two was always going to be the chicken satays.
If there is any way to present your first foot forward, it would be something akin to this. Four big, glistening pieces of meat had been marinated for ages beforehand; what made the chicken skewers even better was using thigh meat. A thick peanut sauce complimented this tender meat, which I have an unmoveable bias. What stood out with the sauce was it being slightly spicy, if the memory serves me correctly. For one, those fresh vegetables on the side don't get left on the plate.
At first glance with the menu, I might have been a little dubious with somewhere focusing primarily on one sort of meal. Though, that perspective is natural to reconsider. Many places around the world will mainly showcase one kind of meal - the two that spring to mind are cheesesteaks and ramen. Ergo, there is no real reason nasi lemak can't get the same treatment.
When they do it as well as it was here, why be bothered about it? With so many takeaways that I have done, a few of them are beginning to meld into one another. It just so happened for this one time that they did something out of the box that is has stuck with me. Plus, the portion sizes when getting weighed against the price come out to outstanding value. They have mostly borrowed the philosophy behind fast food and supplanted it in fresher fields. May the guys behind Lemak see many great days ahead.
An error has occurred! Please try again in a few minutes