Nasi Ulam

Nasi Ulam before it got tossed

It's a shame that I only learned of nasi ulam a few years ago. It's probably the only nyonya dish that I hadn't tried in my life. Still remember, I bought a box of nasi ulam from a food bazaar/event at Straits Quay. When I bought it, I didn't even know what it was about.

My first taste of that box of nasi ulam got me hooked forever and back then, I kind of vowed that I would make this one day. I've been cooking for a year now and it has always been western cuisine. I can't read Chinese and it didn't make sense for me to read an ang moh writing a Chinese cookbook! 

Anyway, thanks to Rasa Malaysia. I found the recipe to nasi ulam. Link here. I had to say it's pretty authentic. It's refreshing, herby and appetizing. Okay, one more word to it - cultural! There's so much culture in a bowl of nasi ulam.

A pretty top view of the unmixed nasi ulam.

When I first looked at the recipe, the call for various types of dauns, intimidated me. Lucky, there's Tesco where everything is labelled. So I basically went to a corner where they sell herbs and all the necessary leaves were there except for wild betel leaves. I followed the recipe pretty closely except for the wild betel leaves and shredded coconut (I omitted because I don't fancy it).

Tada! The final product - presenting the Nasi Ulam.

I'm really pleased with my very first Malaysian/Asian dish. I think I deserve a pat on my back.