I haven’t finished blogging about our Malaysia trip yet, and here I am blogging about the aftermath of that trip. I’ve mentioned several times before that I’ve been having cravings for nasi lemak ever since I had that at our Air Asia flight going back to the Philippines. It basically made me regret not trying that when we were in Malaysia because the Air Asia version was quite good. I’ve been on the lookout for good restaurants in Manila that serves nasi lemak, until I chanced upon Chef Gene Gonzales’ review of Nasi Lemak Restaurant in Robinson’s Galleria. He pronounced it as authentic, so of course I had to try it. Somehow, the fact that I botched my China visa application worked to my advantage and I had to meet Ann again last night at Robinson’s Gelleria to fix that. Since we’re there, we ended up having dinner at Nasi Lemak.
The place was full when we got there and only the outside tables were available. We initially wanted to eat inside because we felt so ‘exposed’ as Ann and I have this habit of ordering too much food (which shouldn’t be an issue because we’re gonna pay for it, anyway, so who cares?). But we’re too hungry and I really have to satisfy my craving so we did end up getting an outside table. We perused the menu and it’s actually a combination of Singaporean, Malaysian, Thai, Japanese and Chinese cuisine. It took some time before Ann was able to finalize her order. On my part, I just want my nasi lemak fix so naturally, I ordered the nasi lemak set.
The first to arrive at our table was the bottomless red iced tea, which was followed by “from Italy” on the menu. It kinda sucked for me that they have an “import” on their menu, like, make up your mind on what exactly do you want your restaurant to be! 
I was actually considering ordering soy milk (which was my definitive Malaysian drink, according to Ann) but I wanted something bottomless, so I ordered red iced tea. Ann had the same idea. My review of the drink? A bit too sweet for my taste, and I wish they’d put more ice.
Thai Pomelo Salad, which was Ann’s order but I tried some, as well. I’ve already sampled pomelo salad at Pearl Farm Resort in Davao, and while Nasi Lemak’s version is quite good, I still prefer the one at Pearl Farm because it had prawns. 
We wanted soup so to keep up with the Southeast Asian theme, we ordered Tom Yum. The waiter asked us if we want it mild or spicy, and of course we went for spicy. Which turned out to be not too spicy, after all, so I wonder how mild is the mild version. Or maybe my tongue is already burned out from eating too much Korean food so my threshold for spiciness has become too high. Their Tom Yum tastes good, but it’s more sinigang than tom yum. And it’s a bit disappointing that it was served warm instead of boiling hot.
Fried Squid with Salt and Pepper. It’s also Ann’s order but I tried it. I think the squid is a little bit overcooked because it’s not as soft as I prefer it to be, but then, that could just be my preference.
Finally, the one I’ve been craving for: nasi lemak set. This came with a small saucer of sauce that I took a sniff of and said, “it smells like Malaysia.” You see, I’m the type of traveler who associates the smell of a certain city or country with the smell of their local cuisine, and that sauce smells “Malaysia” to me. I mixed up my rice with the sambal sauce and all the other condiments that came with it and had my first bite. Just then, an old Chinese man approached our table and said, “what can you say about the sauce?” I said it’s good (it really is) and told him, “I was just telling my friend that it smells like Malaysia. We just came from Malaysia and this is what it smelled like.” He laughed at that comment and said he’s actually a Malaysian - from Penang, to be exact - and he owns the restaurant. He’s been going around the tables asking the customers for feedback. Needless to say, after that he kept hovering around our table listening to our live commentary on Nasi Lemak’s food.
My comment about the nasi lemak set: Overall it was great, the servings are huge so I think it’s relatively cheap at php210/set and it certainly satisfied my cravings, but I wish it had more sambal. I want it spicy and I want it NOW!
We also ordered Char Kway Teow and the waiter asked us again if we want it spicy. However, it’s still not spicy enough for our tastes. Ann was even commenting about how bland it tasted (all the while, the owner was just nearby, tinkering on his computer) until she took another bite with togue (bean sprouts) on it. Apparently, she only got noodles on her first bite that’s why it was bland and eating it with togue will make a huge difference. I told her - and any Malaysian or Singaporean is free to correct me on this - that I think I figured out the proper way of eating Malaysian/Singaporean food. You have to mix everything together and make sure each bite has a piece of every ingredient. The perfect bite, if you will. I realized that when I first had nasi lemak on the plane. I initially did not mix everything together so it tasted a bit lopsided, until I had the sense to mix everything up together. It made a huge difference and that’s how I fell in love with it. The varying spices and textures of the rice, nuts, fried anchovies, vegetables, sauce and whatever meat is included will explode in your mouth and it makes everything interesting. It’s the same with char kway teow. Ann insisted on tasting just the shrimp and she said it’s bland, so I told her that it’s unfair to judge it just on the shrimp since it’s supposed to be eaten together with the rest of the ingredients. Also, I thought it may be wrong to judge it by comparing the taste to the one we sampled at the hotel in KL as it is possible that this is really what char kway teow is supposed to taste like. The owner is from Penang and that dish is a Penang specialty. Anyway, in the end we decided that the char kway teow needs more togue, and suddenly Mr. Owner, whom all this time was tinkering with his computer or so we thought, turned to us and said, “thank you, we will add more togue next time.” 
My mouth has become full of overpowering flavors so I decided to order teh tarik, which as I found out in Malaysia, is the perfect drink to wash all those spices off your mouth. I ordered hot teh tarik, while Ann decided to have the iced version.
Ok, so how’s my Nasi Lemak experience? I’ll answer it with the photo of the aftermath of that meal:
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ah… nasi lemak - my fav food! It’s really hard to find real good sambal even in malaysia though. The best sambal is when they put enough belacan and it smells really fragrant. I always ask for more sambal when buying at small hawker stalls. hehe. anyway, i’m glad you finally had your fix of nasi lemak. It seems like they served your nasi lemak with fried fish and chicken. I like mine with lalas though - sambal kerang (lala). It’s the same with char keoy teow also. It’s really rare to find real good char keoy teows. It all depends on your keoy teow size and the size of fire, proportion of sauce and ingredients, and for me, i prefer it when it is mix fried with eggs and lalas, spicy and the keow teow size must be medium sized and not be too big (it can taste bland if it’s too big). Many restaurants uses the big ones though.
For me, the best char keow teows in Malaysia are normally found in small hawker stalls (plus you can customize - whether you want eggs/chili/lala) rather than big restaurants. It’s pretty hard to master the art of cooking good ones and it’s true that different places cook it pretty differently (hence the taste varies) for reasons i have stated.
Btw, did you try our king fruit, durian, when at Malaysia?
No, I didn’t. I don’t eat durian.
I’ve tried it before in Davao City (PH), where it’s also famous, and I didn’t like it. Ukiss Alexander’s dad also suggested it to me but I didn’t have the nerve to tell him that I don’t eat durian. 
BTW, the one I ordered is a set meal, hence the presence of fish and chicken. We could order just nasi lemak, too. Maybe I’ll do that next time and ask for more sambal.
I want to try this restaurant soon Pau! It looks interesting.
Really Daddy yo told you to eat durian? Hahaha! He’s really into it. Trying everything exotic. I forgot he is also chinese in decendant and asked him if he tried crickets and frogs…i felt like a cold water splashed thru me when he told me theres tons of it in HK or even in Macau!
Durian is not bad naman di ba? I could still remember the durian feast in the office. One manager brought durian for me and some of the staffs in the office. Everytime they open the container(the shell were already removed when you travel with it) you can smell it all throughout the office. And even as i enter our building every morning for 1 week i can smell the durian enough for other building tenants to mmumble about the odor! Hahaha!
Cha: I’m just not used to eating fruit with onions, hence, my dislike for durian.
But I think Malaysian durian isn’t as stinky as Davao durian.
Tara, let’s eat there next time we meet. There’s actually a Korean restaurant across Nasi Lemak and I saw the customers on the table next to ours ordering a bowl of ramyeon from there and brought it at their Nasi Lemak table. The owner of Nasi Lemak even graciously returned the bowl to the Korean resto himself. We failed to ask if he owns that Korean resto, too.
Reading this entry make me hungry
The Pamelo Salnd n the Fried Prawn look yummy!!! Wonder is it easy to make tat salad!!!???
ekekkek I love durian! I love it as a shake and of course when it’s fresh and we put it in the fridge for a few hours so it’s nice and COLD!! It’s a must have whenever we go to HK and Vietnam.. only problem is.. we can’t bring it back to the hotel.. or if we do, we have to hide it!!!! When we went to Thailand, there’s actually a sign at our hotel that we can’t bring durian to the hotel to eat lah! ekekekkekeke..
The food look so yummy.. I’m starving now..!!! =(