The Tale of 'Nasi Lemak' & 'Nasi Uduk'

THE EPICURE'S CONJECTURE

(This is a 3 part article series)

THE TALE OF 'NASI LEMAK' & "NASI UDUK'

The "Nasi Lemak" aka steamed rice in coconut milk traditionally comes with fried anchovies, fried peanuts, a quarter of hard boiled egg and it's noticeable extremely/mildly rich hot sweet chili paste depending on your taste buds. Side garnishing of sliced cucumber and most of the time packed in banana leaf to enhance the fragrance of the rice unites all Malaysian under one roof despite their ideological or intellectual differences. Off course, there are cultural and regional variations but the standard Nasi Lemak serves predominantly in Mamak Indian Muslim stalls in it's pyramidal form had always been the Malaysian benchmark for the "Nasi Lemak".

The cousin to this Malaysian dish is the Indonesian "Nasi Uduk" aka as steamed rice in coconut milk but enhanced with ginger, lemongrass and screwpine leaves. Traditional complimentary side dishes are finely cut deep fried "tempeh" (fermented soya cakes but having better nutritional value than Toufu according to research due to different ways of fermentation) stir fried with sweet chili paste, fried shallots and thinly sliced omelette.

Despite being cousins originated from the Malay archipelago, they are both distinct from one another not just culturally but gastronomically. Nasi Lemak emphasizes the strength of the coconut milk and the fragrance derived from the banana leaf. Nasi Uduk however puts more focus on the overpowering fragrance of lemongrass and the screwpine leaves - different cooks will offer different level of complexity. The rice grain between the two countries seems to be quite different which produces different sense of excitement and pleasure derived from these two dishes.

Sadly, despite their deliciousness and their exotic nature to Westerners, Malaysian food and her counterpart Indonesian food had never been able to capitalize on the food successfully such as "Sushi". The failure to promote the food stems from many reasons including financial constraints, lack of entrepreneurship mindsets by both the Malays and Indonesian natives as well as government's lacking in focus and initiative to push the popularity for a global success. These two iconic food are branded as cheap commoner commodity - most of the time as a mean to satiate hunger. At their lowest, these food are sold along dirty streets in Jakarta or even pulled carts with questionable hygiene standards of having just a small pail of water to wash 20 dishes which can only be competed with shabby Mamak stalls infested with flies served by Bangladeshis with years of questionable hygienic practices.

When food is presented as "means of survival" rather than "an art or a food-escapade to satiate the primitive human search of gastronomical pleasure", the standard of the food itself drops in the eye of the society as these food were not just mass produced but also taken for granted - both locally and then globally. Coupled by the significant lower exchange rates of these two currencies relatively to most of the Western hemisphere, "Nasi Lemak" and "Nasi Uduk" just fail to make impact like the "Sushi" industry that could easily rake in a trillion dollar sales worldwide annually.

Other similar examples are the Chinese and Indian Takeaways.

THE TALE OF CHINESE & INDIAN TAKEAWAYS

A short re-enactment of a particular conversation from Big Bang Theory Season X Episode Y

Sheldon : We will have Chinese Takeaway on a Monday, Indian Takeaway on a Tuesday...and a Roast on a Sunday.

As university students have constrained budget, Chinese and Indian food are the most affordable options relatively to Japanese food. Even a Sunday roast will slightly cost more, not to mention the need to cook and prepare for hours.

Historically, Chinese and Indian food made a significant landmark in the US and the UK a few decades ago during the modern peak of Western Civilization and the struggling times of India and China where history witnessed the influx of Chinese and Indian migrants to these two regions. They are not exactly Chinese or Indian food but more of a "bastardization" food genre to suit Western taste buds - the curry had to be designed extremely mild, thicker with the application of starch base thickener, less greasy with the readily available Genetically Modified Chicken (the DNA was specifically altered such that they have larger Chicken Breast to suit Western appetite on healthy living - which explains why chicken nowadays have significantly larger breast ratio) breast - cut in cubes, boneless and skinless. The Chinese food was designed in quite a similar fashion with their chicken Kung Pao stir fried with Bell Pepper (which sensible Chinese will cook Kung Pao with Bell Pepper? The smell is very offensive. Imagine blending apple into "Nasi Lemak", do you want that?) and repeating it again with Genetically Modified Chicken breast cut in cubes, boneless and skinless.

As highlighted previously that when food is presented as "means of survival" which in this case is a reference to the1970s to 1980s Chinese and Indian migrants to the US and UK struggling for their new life with limited skill sets apart from their home cooking culinary skills, this resulted not just in the "bastardization" of their food culture to blend with local favor and preferences but also intense competition that ended with price wars with the locals being the ultimate winner for having the choice of parting their money for the cheapest and best "immigrant" Chinese and Indian option.

Chinese and Indian takeaways had lost their identity and these abominable food hybrids are just disgusting, cheap and frowned upon as food choices amongst the lowest of the society echelon. They hate Chinese takeaways more than Indian takeaways.

They never succeeded to make themselves into fine dining but only as "Chinese and Indian Buffet" where the option are for gluttons.

THE TALE OF SUSHI & WAGYU BEEF

There are huge influx of Japanese migrants to New York and California in the 1980s. For their success in World War II in challenging the Western Allies, despite the lost, they were full of pride and confidence.

The attitude is brought into their food industry. There is not much compromise for "bastardization". There are also strict ethics and respect surrounding their food culture from their cleanliness, hygiene, attitude in food preparation, raw material selection and finally customer service satisfaction.

The standard modus operandi in producing a sushi is intricate and although simple - gives the impression that you should be trained three years in rice washing, a few years in cutting the fish and being labeled as professional once your customers start preferring your own "omakase".

For Japanese, the food is their pride and is not only serve as "means of survival", the strict rules are there for the customers to abide

1) the rice must be short grained Japanese, cooked traditionally and left to cold, mixed with mirin, salt, sugar and vinegar - artistically lightly pressed within a two finger sized shape to ensure that it melts in your mouth.

2) the best material are served raw. The fattiest part and the best cut will fetch premium.

Their food is their pride, they will not "bastardized" their food in exchange for lower cost or to fulfill local taste buds such as changing the rice grain or exchanging wasabi with mustard. The only improvisation they had was California Maki. They will not incorporate "sambal", ketchup for their sushi options and they take great offence on those who used significant amount of wasabi on their sashimi.

Wagyu Beef commenced a hefty price of 300 USD per kilogram for their marbling - with myths surrounding the cow from pampering with rice feeds and sake to music for stress relieves to ensure that the best marbling can be produced. It is prohibited for the cow's semen to leave Japan - it is a well guarded genetic property.

So what does the global food industry has anything to do with us?

We take our pride seriously in producing our work. We expect those representing us to ensure in protecting our innovation property like the Wagyu Sperm.