Nasi Lemak | Ziggy

Nasi Lemak is a dish from the surrounding regions, also the national dish of Malaysia. Rice is cooked with cocnut milk and pandan leaves for it's fragrance and delicious taste.

Usually a simple dish with rice wrapped in banana leaf and newspaper back in the days, a small piece of egg, anchovies and peanut accompany. Often a small whole fish would be added, or a chicken wing. More ambitious ones would allow a choice of beef rendang or cuttlefish.

The ones listed here would be operated by Chinese, offering rice cooked in coconut milk, and a variety of choices to pick your food from like a mixed rice stall. These shops tend to serve mainly fried stuff, comfort food for many!

Interestingly, after I have gathered my first 3 lemak establishments, a friend of mine who is friends with one of them told me that the 3 are operated by 3 sisters! Eldest owns Bali, the youngest Fong Seng, while Punggol belongs to the middle one. I've got to say at least my taste is consistent! 😎😎😉

Fong Seng

Punggol Nasi Lemak

Bali

Hon Ni

Nasi Lemak

Aug 2020

Probably the most famous nasi lemak place in Singapore, the Q for this itself can be an IG moment. Look at the shop from outside and all you can see is the Q… but it moves quite quickly so the waiting time isn’t too long.

Very fragrant rice, the smell of coconut oil/milk fills the air when you’re near, hitting your senses as you eat. The sambal chilli is marvellous, I always ask for more and they are never enough!

There is a good variety of dishes available, mostly of the fried variety, fried fish fillet, fried egg, fried chicken wings, fried ikan bilis, luncheon meat etc. Vegetables would be the curry cabbage (sayur lodeh), sambal long beans and a fried brinjal.

The dishes are all fresh, which probably is what makes this place so popular, and no denying that they are nice comfort food. They do serve some pretty tasty and crispy chicken wings, which would be a must here. Some of my friends would order 2 each time! The pick of the vegetables would be the brinjal, which comes with a lot of hidden pork lard, yums!

Down them with lots of sambal, which is more sweet than spicy, and satisfaction guaranteed! Burp…..

If you want a taste of what a nasi lemak is like, this is the one to visit. Highly recommended!

Punggol Nasi Lemak

965 Upper Serangoon Road, s534721 12pm – 11pm

238 Tangjong Katong Road, s437026 430 – 1130pm closed on Thu

371 Jalan Besar, #01-01, s208998 430pm – 12am

https://www.ponggolnasilemak.com.sg/menu/

Bali

Nasi Lemak

May 2020

Make no mistakes, I like this place. Not sure why though….

Parking here is horrendous, it’s easier to strike toto than finding a legit parking lot here; the food here, most of the items are just a notch below a certain competitor; and it’s not exactly cheap…

Ok, let’s be fair, let’s talk about the positives. First, there is not much of a Q here, a constant stream of customers, but no Q's longer than an Afghan Hound's fur without a fur cut. Next, the atmosphere here seems more relaxed, although the place seems “simpler”, it feels relaxed. Third, staff here are friendlier, I’ve joked and chatted with some of them. Finally and probably the best reason, the variety here is better, you’ll see some real greens! Gives a healthier feel 😆😆

The main reason I like to come here is the Bali chicken, grilled in a sweet black sauce; it is slightly sweet, with soft crispy skin. You get a nice piece of chicken thigh and I can slowly enjoy, gnaw at ends like Ziggy would. You don’t get this in many nasi lemak places, so this draws me.

Besides the Bali chicken, they do serve a pretty mean onion omelette. I say onion omelette, but it’s more bits of egg with onions, at close to a 1-1 ratio. It’s definitely more interesting than the old sunny side up, or plain omelette, in most places.

Finally, the variety of actual green vegetables, you have spinach, lady’s fingers, eggplant, the ubiquitous cabbage, and petai!

Dec 2024 Update: They have recently moved over to be along Sims Avenue from Geylang Lorong 15. Slight improvement on finding parking space, big improvement on comfort and environment! Now in an air conditioned shop, with a cash collection machine, food remains delicious! Definitely more pleasant to eat here now.

Bali Nasi Lemak

142, Sims Ave, s387464

500pm – 2am, closed on Sundays

https://ilovebali.sg/

https://www.facebook.com/ilovebali.sg/

Fong Seng

Nasi Lemak

Jul 2024

Excellent nasi lemak and sambal chilli

Situated just beside the National University of Singapore, Fong Seng’s target customers are naturally students. Everyone that had been to NUS would know of them.

Staying in one of the hostels with fellow Malaysians, where supper was part of the daily meals back in the days (I jokingly asked my dad why the term 3 meals a day when it should be 4!), we came here often.

I picked up my love for sambal chilli and fried fish fillet here at Fong Seng! Was very happy to find both were still very nice here. Selection here was simple, just fried stuff from the frozen food or canned section of the supermarket with nasi lemak. And chilli. Now, some premium items had been added.

Tried a teriyaki chicken, as well curry vegetables, fried chicken wings and of course the fish fillet. The chicken wings were a bit meh, reminded me why I didn’t like it, especially when it was the premium item back then. Curry vegetables weren’t much better. The teriyaki chicken was not better than what I can do at home. Very glad The fish fillet they used still suited my taste, with a good fishy taste. Happier that the sambal chilli helped to make things better, that alone jacked up the ratings! The chilli here was not spicy, but fantastic taste and slightly sweet. The nice thing about all these food was that they remained fresh and warm.

They now have different types of rice as indicated on the menu, I’d always go for the nasi lemak as it is filled with coconut fragrance.

Fong Seng has a halal shop along Pasir Panjang Road, opposite the Mapletree Business City. On a quiet Monday morning, I had a fried bee hoon instead of rice, most items were about the same. The bee hoon was nice, had a fried chicken chop instead of wings. It was similarly just average, the fish fillet was equally good. Feels like if there was a crowd and the items move faster and the food fresher, it’d be jyst as good but on this day, everything dropped a notch here.

Excellent fragrant rice and chilli, comparable to that of my other 2 favourite nasi lemak places, Ponggol and Bali… and I recently found out these 3 belongs to 3 sisters! No wonder they are so similar!

Fong Seng Nasi Lemak

22 Clementi Road, s129751

101 Pasir Panjang Road, s118527

6am – 4am, closed on Sun

https://www.instagram.com/fongsengnasilemak/?hl=en

Hon Ni

Nasi Lemak, Breakfast Bee Hoon

Dec 2023

Simple and fresh comfort food

Serving bee hoon in the mornings and nasi lemak after 10am, Hon Ni (you can call it “Horny”…) is a simple stall that serves nothing extraordinary except you have the option of fried chicken thighs instead of just wings. And pretty fresh ingredients.

Besides fried chicken thighs or wings, other choices are achar, brinjal and long beans; then there are otak, luncheon meat, fish cakes and eggs. All very ordinary and you’d eye me suspiciously if I told you their luncheon meat was the best I’ve ever had and I couldn’t get it at the supermarket…. Right? Even the rice here was pretty ordinary.

Every order was given as a take away, served in paper bag, wrapped and put in a plastic bag before you even heard the price to pay. Very efficient operations.

The only thing I’d write about are the wings and thighs. They were fresh and nice, had a strong five spice flavour, and the wings came in such big pieces I could barely lift it up with the plastic spoons given! Yes, it was good but nothing spectacular.

The chilli was a little different, more like chicken rice chilli than the usual sambal chilli for nasi lemak and fried bee hoon. It had the fresh chilli feel but it wasn’t fantastic.

All in all, comfort fast food. Despite being in the longest Q, I was halfway through my meal before the rest of my jiak kaki's came back from buying their food. Yes, I didn’t wait, what’s the point of getting your food served so fast and not enjoying while others linger in the Q, we were amongst buddies… 😎

Hon Ni Kitchen

216 Bedok North Street 1, #01-07 Bedok North Market & Food Centre, s460216

530am – 1pm, closed on Sun