There was a time, my work used to take me a lot to South East Asian countries. Â Malaysia has been one country where I have visited the most and remains my most favourite, partly because of the Malaysian Cuisine. As many who have experienced Malaysian Cuisine would know, it is a balanced blend of Malaysian, Chinese, Indian, and Indonesian influences.
I used to long for Malaysian food when am back in Chennai, only until Nasi Kandar Pelita opened its doors. I know that they are a chain in Malaysia, but never bumped into them while in KL, but it is great that they decided to open a branch in India, in Chennai.
A must try on their menu, well is the Nasi Kandar itself, which is essentially rice with a choice of meat, fish or vegetarian gravy, with a stir fried side [mostly a wonderfully cooked ladysfinger], and a papad.
But my absolute favourites would be the authentic Malaysian Chicken Satay, Nasi Goreng Pattaya and the Iced Milo. The satay is a charcoal grilled Chicken skewer, served with a slightly sweet peanut sauce and salad sides. Each plate comes with 6 portions of Chicken on skewers, which is a shareable portion, but not for me. It is the perfect way to start a Malaysian meal.
The main, Nasi Goreng is a simple, spicy Malaysian style fried rice. Nasi means rice in Malay (or is it in Indonesian), and Goreng means fried. It is a nice flavourful, sweet and spicy fried rice with meat and veggies. Now to top it all, the Nasi Goreng Pattaya is the king, where the Nasi Goreng is nicely and neatly wrapped in an egg omelette pocket. It has always been an absolute pleasure to tear open the omelette and unearth the steaming hot fried rice. This dish has so much drama to it, you can only experience it, no description or pictures can compare to the actual act of tearing open the omelette and savour the delicious fried rice.
Insiders tip, make sure you take a sneak peek into the open kitchen to watch your Nasi Goreng sliding onto its Omelette parcel.
For dessert, I would recommend an Ais kacang, the Malaysian version of a ice gola. But I must say it may not be everybody's favourite.
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One of my favourite world cuisines is Malaysian and what I love about it is the beautiful fusion, originating from multiple ethnic groups that influence the city, its culture and most importantly, its cuisine. The spices used transcend the Malay, Indian and Chinese influences, like Star Anise, or cinnamon, which ties down the three cuisine cultures together.
My endless work trips have made me addicted to Malaysian cuisine and the closest I get to in India is when I visit Nasi Kandar Pelita Restaurant in Chennai. They claim that they are extremely popular in Malaysia, but I have just seen one big restaurant of theirs, that too only recently during a trip to Kuala Lumpur in 2018.
While I have my favorites, this time when I visited Chennai I was a vegetarian and hence ordered some parota and paneer butter masala, Nasi Goreng Vegetarian, and sat down with my favorite Milo Ais (Iced Milo) to cool off the Chennai Heat. The Milo Ais is something that I miss terribly from Malaysia, hot water and milo mixed voraciously and poured over a glass full of ice, does wonders to your body in the extremely tropical weather, refreshing you instantly.
Since the Nasi Goreng doesn't exist in a vegetarian version here, all I got was a regular street style fried rice, which was delicious, but not a Nasi Goreng.
The Parota was definitely a malabar version and the paneer butter masala was definitely a customisation for the local taste, but a delicious smoky version that we loved.
Did finish off with some Suleimani, which was ok, and two scoops of very icy chocolate ice cream.
Milo Ais definitely #apjprecommends
Quick Summary - Authentic Malaysian cuisine, swiftly served in a rustic Malaysian cafe style setting, Nasi Kandar Pelita is a Little Malaysia in Big Chennai
Even now, I try squeezing in a culinary visit to Nasi Kandar Pelita during my 2-day short trips to Chennai.
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