Malaysian-style coconut rice with lemon satay fish & lemongrass rooster at Canberra

I’ve been eager to patronise Pangkor Island Nasi Lemak positioned at Bukit Canberra Hawker Centre for the longest time since its opening… and I lastly did! The stall dishes out plates of Malaysian-style coconut rice with distinctive sides which you don’t often get at different locations.

I’ve heard about Pangkor Island however wouldn’t have a lot data concerning the place. Whilst ready within the queue, I did a fast read-up and this was what I learnt in a nutshell.

It’s an island in Perak, Malaysia, which is crammed with seashores and fisheries. Its well-known meals embody seafood and chee cheong enjoyable (that’s all I wanted to know).

What I attempted at Pangkor Island Nasi Lemak

Since Pangkor Island is legendary for seafood, I made a decision to strive the Nyonya Nasi Lemak Lemon Satay Fish Set (S$7.90).

The dish consisted of the lemon satay fish being served individually on a plate, a reasonably pastel blue mound of coconut rice, achar, half a boiled egg, peanuts and ikan bilis sambal.

The lemon satay fish was an enormous piece of fried fish fillet soaked in a deep-coloured gravy, and smothered with a beneficiant showering of fried shallots, uncooked shallots and slices of chilli padi.

Upon my first chew, the fish was delightfully crispy on the skin and lusciously on the gentle inside. The gravy handled my style buds to a multifaceted explosion of flavour. It started with the candy and bitter notes coming from the tamarind adopted by a fragile smoky caress on the finish.

Just after I thought the trip was over, the dynamic duo of uncooked and fried shallots gave a savoury and spicy shock assault whereas the warmth coming from the chilli padi slices gave its grand finale— it was an journey for positive!

The ikan bilis sambal had tons of onion slices which gave the umami-rich anchovies some bursts of sweetness. I appreciated that the sambal was barely diluted, which acted like a gravy. This allowed me to spoon it over the fragrant blue pea nasi lemak. The mixture was scrumptious.

I then moved on to my subsequent dish, the Nyonya Nasi Lemak Lemongrass Chicken Set (S$6.90). Except for the distinction in meat, the remainder of the condiments mimicked the earlier dish. The lemongrass rooster got here in a whole thigh portion and resembled an ayam goreng berampah.

The pores and skin was extraordinarily flavourful and crispy with bits of fragrant lemongrass, fried curry leaves and numerous different spices. However, that being mentioned, the meat inside was on the opposite finish of the spectrum (bland and never marinated nicely).

Thankfully, the little pile of achar by the aspect gave it some acidic bursts of pleasure which made the dish extra delectable.

Alas, I reached the ultimate dish, the Pangkor Island Chee Cheong Fun (S$2.50). Due to the truth that this was one other of the Malaysian island’s specialty dishes, I used to be secretly excited.

I used to be low-key shocked after I noticed the dish being served on my tray. The plating wasn’t actually interesting and I’d’ve most popular if the rice sheets weren’t reduce up into small items. It simply regarded like a globby mess and my internal ex-chef self was nitpicking on it.

I took my first mouthful and sadly, it didn’t wow me in any respect. It tasted like our native old-school chee cheong enjoyable with its crimson candy sauce, sesame seeds and fried shallots. I may depend the variety of mushrooms with 1 hand and the minced meat was too wonderful for it to be detected— what a downer.

Final ideas

After my go to to Pangkor Island Nasi Lemak, I’ll presume that the seafood gadgets are their forte, judging from the superior lemon satay fish which I had tried.

I’ll be wanting ahead to making an attempt their sambal chilli fish, sambal prawn and turmeric rice (completely missed out on that) on my subsequent go to.

Expected harm: S$3 – S$9 per pax

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