Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang

When I started writing on my blog long ago, one of the first things I often wrote about was on food. It was also a lamentation about losing our food culture especially our hawker fare. K F Seetoh and Professor Tommy Koh also mentioned it later. Our hawker food begin even before I was born but as a young child, I saw how it has evolved. We were poor, people need to feed their family and those who could cook started peddling food as hawkers. Some set up push cart stalls with a few wooden tables and chairs, others peddle from door to door and there were some who would carry their stoves for hot water, gravy with their condiments, plates and bowls in two crates balancing them on a wooden pole and walked around the neighbourhood. 

All hawkers prepared everything for their food - from gravy to shallots and their chilli sauce, etc. They do not buy them ready-made as there was no such things those days. The tik-tok noodle seller was the original Deliveroo or Food Panda as he has a man to go around beating his bamboo tik-tok pieces to get your orders and delivered them to you. I knew one braised duck and meat seller who would play dice to gamble with you and if you won you get his duck or braised meat free which he could not keep to sell the next day anyway and if you lost he got to earn some extra cash for his family. Brilliant. Hawkers used opeh and other leaves for you hokkien mee or hor fun and chee cheong fun. Al naturel, no plastic or Styrofoam usage at all. 

Nobody in those days would travel all the way to some place to try good food. You may only hear of it by word of mouth. Take for example the Hill Street Tai Wah Bak Chor Mee or the Hill Street Char Kway Teow. Only the lunch crowd from offices around there would patronise. The queue may be five to seven people at any time and they would make you the best bowl or plate of their noodles. People are well heeled these days and with the advent of social media, Michelin-Star awards, the one or two-hour queue, even the hawkers have to find a way to get around by cooking their food differently. 

So in my constant quest for good food, I am always happy to discover old and new ones of whatever type of food one could find that typifies our culture especially food from days of old. Ci Yuan Hawker Centre at Hougang Ave 9 is a good place. 

https://gforce-guru.blogspot.com/2017/08/hawkers-ci-yuan-community-club.html

It is here again that I recently found a very good nasi lemak - Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang. 

There is something for everyone as you can see from the menu.

This is the giant set with everything in it.

If you are not too hungry, two persons could eat this.

I saw someone ordered this - this is the Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang.

Here is the owner Ikram busy at work.

I have to try this - the Ayam Taliwang. It is the same nasi lemak rice with an egg but this chicken is special, an Indonesian styled nasi lemak. The chicken is very freshly cooked with a special chili sauce spread on it. 

The nasi lemak rice is fragrant and it is not the same as you would find in other nasi lemak. Ikram must have added something else in it. I thought I detected dashes of ginger and lemon grass. A good food must have good ingredients and a good cook knows how to infuse the ingredients into the food so that you could taste that it is flavourful. Ikram, Roslan and the team have done it very well. The rest of the food items like the chicken wing, otah, etc. always tasted fresh. The chili reminded me of how my mum would do it when she made nasi lemak at home as she is an expert in all kinds of chili. Their chili is excellent and perfect for nasi lemak. So every time you are in the vicinity, you should pop by and try this.  No, even if you are not in the vicinity, you should. Satisfaction is guaranteed as it is very good. Ikram's brother runs their other stall in Yishun.

And say hello to Ikram (back) and Roslan (front). You could see Ikram cooking here. They are passionate about what they do here. They are also soccer fans but do not expect to get something free when you come in a Liverpool jersey. Just come as you are as they are very friendly and you will discover a nasi lemak that is cooked just for you. 

You will find your good nasi lemak here and then you will also find your Merlion.

You may also bump into me. Cheers to Ikram and Roslan! Keep the SG flag flying! With you, for you, for SG food and for nasi lemak. Haha. Sedap!