today we're in the state of Pahang in Malaysia. Pahang is home to some really
unique dishes and we're taking you on a massive food tour to discover some of
these local foods. Get ready for some amazing eats, I'm Thomas and I'm Sheena
and we're Chasing a Plate, we hope you're hungry let's eat!
the first stop on this
massive Kuantan food tour is gonna be Malaysia's national dish- nasi lemak
let's go and grab one in this restaurant
these are the nasi lemak bungkus
sitting on the table you will often find these at restaurants in a container like
this on the table or at roadside stalls so it's wrapped in a banana leaf and some
brown paper this one, but let's rip into it and talk through what's hiding in
this package, whoa look at that oh look at that sambal, so this dish is really really
simple in what it's made up with, it is nasi or rice but that rice is cooked in
coconut milk so it's very creamy and nasi lemak basically means fatty rice or
creamy rice so that's referring to the rice portion of this dish then you've
got this beautiful looking sambal all over it look at it coating the banana
leaf, the paper I can see some ikan bilis or anchovies in there that looks like a
big piece of onion on top you then have a piece of cucumber just a single piece
of cucumber and half a boiled egg oh the yolk just popped out so that is nasi
lemak bungkus and bungkus means package or these little packages that you find
so when you see these grab one because they are so good and this one looks
incredible this sambal is really getting me excited so I'm gonna dive on in and
check this out, oh it's hot as well you don't often find a hot nasi lemak let's
just try wow it's really hot oh this is really unexpected oh they're normally
normally warm or cold when they're served, so I've got a big piece of onion and a whole
lot of sambal and some of that coconut rice
it's got a really sweet spice, the spice is really good I'm gonna get some more
rice and some of these ikan bilis so you can see these anchovies are being
soaked and cooked into the sambal so they're a little bit soft but they
should have a little bit of crunch still, let's get rice and the ikan bilis
a tiny bit of crunch from the fish the anchovy ohhhh a beautiful sweet
saltiness is coming out, it's actually sweeter than I was expecting
normally they're quite a salty hit those fish but that's just a really nice
sweet flavour, that's really good and it's really spicy it's kind of giving
me the hiccups, the nasi lemak normally isn't quite this spicy the sambal but every
restaurant will have a different sambal and this one's pretty spicy okay
one more bite so I've got a whole lot of that sambal, some egg yolk there and
obviously the rice
Wow oh yes that egg yolk really adds another level of creaminess
I'm gonna have a bite of this cucumber
just to cool off my mouth, this is a really good nasi lemak and such a good
way to start the day, these are the perfect breakfast
our next stop is a
really famous halal kopitiam or traditional coffee shop and we've come here
to try their curry mee let me talk you through what is in this bowl of goodness
so we've got some tofu puffs, we've got a mixture of noodles so we've got both
bihun which is the vermicelli, rice vermicelli and the yellow noodles, we've
got some chicken which is still on the bone here
fish cake, some fish balls, what else?
I thought I spied a curry leaf in there and it's all languishing in this creamy coconut
chicken broth, let's just give the broth a go because it's calling out
my name
whoa it's got a really strong chicken flavour it's more chicken tasting than coconut tasting but
it does have that creamy element, I'm gonna try some of these noodles so
I got a mix of both so both the bihun which is the rice vermicelli and also
the yellow noodles let's see what they taste like
really good they've just been coated with that broth and they still have a bit of bite
let's try another mouthful, I'm gonna go for these tofu puffs, these are my
favourite bit when eating curry mee because they've soaked up all of that
broth, let's see, mmmmm
it really has, when I bit into it, it exploded with that broth it was so tasty
let's give some of that chicken a go as well, so that's on the bone there
I'm just gonna rip a little bit of that meat off and see how that's cooked
just beautiful, well poached chicken, it's really tender, this is a delicious bowl
now that I've had some of the curry mee I reckon it could do with a bit more of a fiery kick so
there are these pottles of chilli sauce on the table so I'm just going to get a
liberal spoonful and chuck that in there
and add a little bit more heat, alright let's give that a big mix up
and see what that does to the broth
Ohhhh yea yea
it added a really fiery kick and that's what I'm in loving about this bowl of noodles, there's the fieriness from
the chilli, the really smooth coconut-y chicken broth and then just
all those different textures, like the noodles are so soft, those soft fish cakes those
explosions of crunchy bean curd and then that tender poached chicken, this is ace
next up we've stopped at a little roadside restaurant for a snack that I absolutely
love this is keropok lekor or fish cakes, deep fried some people call them a
fish sausage and that's more just because of the shape they're more like a
fish cake now it might not look like much but this is an incredibly tasty snack
it's actually from Terengganu which is a state just north of where we are now in
Pahang, except here in Pahang they do these a little bit differently the snack
they powder the the keropok in flour before they deep-fry it which gives it
an extra crispy finish let's give them a go, we've got some sauce here let's pour
some of that on the plate, oh look at the colour of that sauce so
that should be a sweet and spicy sauce, dip that keropok lekor in the
sauce get a really nice coating on there, let's give it a go
hmmmm, hmmmm
it's a little bit of hot because it just came out of this huge
vat of oil, it's got a beautiful fish flavour, not overpowering though, a little
bit salty, it's a great texture that flour on the outside does add a little
bit of a crunch but not as much as I was expecting actually it's just a very thin
skin with a tiny crunch on it and then the inside's all squishy, let's dunk a bit
more I really like this sauce, so the sauce has a tiny spice you can see a few
chilli seeds just swimming in there but nothing major and then it's really
quite sweet, let's give this another go, it's such a
great flavour, very simple, not too in-your-face just the perfect snack and
that sauce that sweetness and that tiny little spice adds a lot, these are really
really good
another thing that we're trying today is sata and it is these
little parcels here so it's a fish cake of sorts that's been wrapped in banana
leaf and then put on the grill and you can see that the fire has just totally
charred this banana leaf, it's falling to bits as I unwrap it, let's see what is
in here, ohhhh look at that, so it's a fish cake that's made out of usually sardine and
then there's also coconut in there, some ginger, some chilli and that's it I
think, let's just give it a try, still got this, just got that big
side of charr-ness stuck on there, let's try it
Mmmmm that is so good
it's really moist because it's been kept in that banana leaf so all the
moisture's retained and kept tight in that parcel you can really see the
shredded coconut in there, it's got quite a mellow fish flavour, it's quite sweet in
fact and you can really taste the ginger and the chilli, wow that is so tasty
that was a really good little snack and now we're gonna jump in the car and we've got something really
interesting we're gonna try next
we've picked up this pretty unique dessert
it's incredibly pretty and it's called the Royal pudding or the Pudding Raja
so it was a pudding that used to be reserved for the Royals here in Pahang
but nowadays commoners like us can get our hands on it but in the old days it
was just for the Royals and so you can see here this yellow stuff is actually a
duck egg thread so they've somehow made the yolk of the duck egg into this beautiful
thread, you've then got these prunes just cut on top, there's some sort of maybe
candied or fresh... that one might be fresh and then maybe some candied cherry
there and underneath you can see these bananas as well so these little sweet
bananas, so a very interesting dessert which also comes with this big tub of
evaporated milk so very runny evaporated milk and I think you just dump that all
on there so let's bathe the dessert in that evaporated milk, dive in there with
the little spoon and just I'll try and get a bit of bit of everything so I've
got a prune, a banana, some of that egg let's give it a go
hmm hmm wow the banana is crazy sweet wow that's sweet
Oh so I think the banana has been, been cooked or fried or something because
it's, it's just so sweet the sugars all sticky in the banana, I'm gonna have
another spoon, we've got another big piece of banana a lot of that duck egg
some of those I think they're cherries
hmm it tastes like a really English dessert a really sort of a creamy sweet
dessert, those prunes just give it a little bit of a tang the banana is very
sweet, the egg has a sort of obviously an egg-y flavour but it's not too
over-the-top that flavour, the evaporated milk is very sweet and adds a milkiness
it's a very, very interesting dessert it's really tasty and it's cool having
something so unusual and this shop we bought this from was a tiny little stall
so we've got brought them down to this river area to enjoy them, it's really lovely
sitting here in the sun having an incredibly unique dessert that is a
great little dessert, an odd dessert but a really really nice one
this Pudding Raja tastes exactly like Christmas pudding, the evaporated milk is quite
custard-y and then you've got all those fruits so it really, it just tastes like
Christmas in a bowl
that was a good little pudding really nice stop by the
water, now we're gonna go find some more savoury food
you can't come to Pahang and
not eat ikan patin tempoyak so here it is, the ikan patin is this fish
so the patin fish is from the state of Pahang and then the tempoyak is this
yellow sauce that you can see on top of
the fish and that is fermented durian paste we have ordered this dish
bakar style so the fish has been grilled, you can also order it in a gulai so in a
gravy and the fish is cooked with a durian paste gravy but we're going for
grilled style tonight we've also got some white rice to go with it and then a
plate of ulam so some fresh vegetables and herbs, alright let's
just whack a bit of this fish off and try it wow you can see how it just falls apart
it's so tender, so the patin is a freshwater fish and so the the meat is
actually a little bit different to say like an ocean fish, let's sample it and
see what it tastes like I'm gonna get the bit of that rice and
then just have the fish on its own covered in that durian gravy
Wow, the fish is really sweet and it just
sort of fell apart in my mouth the lingering taste is of that tempoyak so
that durian paste if you've never tried it's a must eat when you're in Malaysia
it's known as the king of fruits and it's a really polarising fruit, people
love it or they hate it some liken it to the smell of dirty old socks or farts,
I reckon it smells really beautiful and in this fermented form it
imparts like a really beautiful aroma or fragrance, I'm just gonna go for another
bite mmm it's so good, it adds an almost fruity element and then there's chilli
in that tempoyak as well so it's like a fiery flavour or taste in my mouth that
is to die for
we are just destroying this ikan patin
tempoyak, the fish itself, the texture is so creamy and rich and then
once you add a little bit of sambal and then some ulam so I've got some herbs
there, it just makes for the most delicious bite
another incredible day of eating don't forget to subscribe and give this video
a thumbs up and we also love to see what you are eating so remember to tag
@chasingaplate and #chasingaplate on Facebook and Instagram so we
can see what delicious eats you are chowing down on, thank you so much for
watching and we will see you next time jumpa lagi