Non-Halal Nasi Lemak @ Jalan Hang Tuah

Have you ever heard of a non-halal source of nasi lemak situated at the heart of KL from any of your friends? If you did, did you have a good look at their twinkling eyes and drooling mouth as they describe to you how tasty the nasi lemak is, when added with their favourite curry chicken, lap cheong and even luncheon meat?

If you did, chances are that you’ve already stumbled upon this area located at Jalan Hang Tuah, where you can see this brightly lit signboard which has nothing to do with the nasi lemak stall that is situated below it. In fact, it’s pretty amazing that an unknown, unbranded stall like this one got its word-of-mouth recognition although it was situated far away from busy areas of KL.

The area itself is littered with tables and chairs, with only 2 hawker stalls providing nasi lemak and chee cheong fun. But looking at the crowd sitting down huddled together enjoying their meals vivaciously, mostly from residents and students living at the apartments surrounding this area, you’d start to wonder what on earth makes their food so heavenly that PJians like us would go this far, just to have a bite!

Pjians like us, would refer to both me and Andrew from drewnity.com. Usually there would be more people but we decided to have a romantic supper together at around 11pm. And even then, the place was still pretty crowded!

Queuing up at the hawker stall can sometime take unreasonable time, no thanks to customers who would take away up to 10 freaking boxes of nasi lemak at one go! I shit you not! Luckily for us the said situation happened right after we got our food. Can’t help but pity the few people behind us who had to wait at least 10-15 minutes waiting for their turn.

As you can see, the selection is pretty limited in my humble opinion. However, they had to be pretty good because at that time, some of the dishes were being refilled, meaning that quantity of the “kuah” they had wasn’t their strength, but the quality of it!

After verification, we found that it was true that their dishes were to die for. Andrew himself couldn’t resist munching down his food as soon as we got seated at our table. He especially liked the sambal they have, which he always orders extra of.

This meal of his consist of 2 chickens!! Plus other things as well. Here’s one downer point: the food here is actually more expensive compared to other nasi lemak places. They charge for every single piece of food you take!

Oh yes. This is true for the ground nuts and ikan bilis. I kid you not lol.

I was, however, quite curious as a first timer who’s only had first hand information from Andrew, Ren and a few others. I mean, with all the talk about it, I can’t help but put some kind of expectation on it right? Especially after finding out that it was situated at a largely unknown spot, which takes a bit of know-how to get there as well, I was so curious to find out what makes this nasi lemak so special to this point of insatiable craving!

But as I took a look at my dish, I guess there could be many reasons why. I mean, how often do you get to eat luncheon meat together with your nasi lemak? or lap cheong, for that matter. Certainly a source of something unique in town that no one else has. Also, for some reason the messy outlook of the food on my plate looks appealing!

We gobbled up our food without much chatting between us and Andrew’s friend who came a bit later. In the end I guess the portion was still quite lacking despite the price I paid for, which as around RM6-ish. Andrew’s was RM8 cause he took two pieces of chicken. I guess when the stall owners know they are famous, they can charge any price they want because customers will come back for more anyway, since there’s no competing option for them.

That’s when we ordered the chee cheong fun which was the only other option available at this place. It was yummy, and thankfully, cheap as well. One thing Andrew tried to ask me to do was to put in the soup water (the boiling water used to cook the “liu” into our finished plate of chee cheong fun, to add to the leftover sauce. This is then drank like a soup which is apparently a tradition that came from somewhere! Who else knows about this, please tell me why!

Anyway, I have to say the experience was good though. All in all the food here was pretty tasty but I guess I wished the nasi lemak was a little bit more cheaper so that I can have more on my plate. Drinks were reasonably priced though limited in option as well. Reminds me of Kin Kin Spicy Pan Mee whereby only their Spicy Pan Mee and herbal drinks are sold throughout the day lol. Talk about exclusivity 😉