When I think of Malay food in Singapore, the first thing that comes to my mind is nasi lemak. This humble dish of fragrant coconut rice, meat, and sambal chilli is so popular that there are so many variations to it now. Lobster, cheese, you name it, we’ve got it.

When I saw this stall selling nasi kukus, I had to run a google search to figure out what that is. For those who are as clueless as me, nasi kukus is actually similar to economic rice, just that the rice grains are steamed in individual aluminium cups, which gives the grains a soft and fluffy texture.

Yes! Nasi Kukus specialises in nasi kukus and nasi dagang, which is red rice steamed with coconut milk.

Located in Jurong East, this stall opened about a month ago. The owner and chef used to work in Mujur Catering which they claim is a renowned catering company in Kelantan.

We ordered the Set A Spiced Fried Chicken ($5) and Set 3 Sambal Assam Sotong ($5.50).

The nasi kukus set comes with a killer fried chicken thigh. Cooked in small batches to ensure that the skin stays mouth-shatteringly crispy, the stall only uses fresh chicken thigh – not frozen – which remains juicy and tender on the inside, with lingering flavours of a turmeric, lemongrass and ginger spice mix.

I was a tad disappointed with the texture of the rice though – the grains were separated well, but it wasn’t as fluffy as how they hyped it to be.

The other popular dish would be the nasi dagang, which we ordered with sambal sotong. They added pineapples into the sambal sotong to give it a nice fruity sweetness. The stall purchases their seafood fresh from the market daily, where the lady boss handpicks each and every piece of seafood. That is a lot of dedication to freshness!

I visited the stall twice. The first time I had the nasi dagang, I couldn’t taste any coconut milk in the rice at all. However, I visited the stall two weeks later and had the nasi dagang again. This time, the rice was fragrant and coconut-ty, and I liked how the red rice grains gave a little bite.

Both rice sets come with fish crackers and some beansprouts, but what stole our breaths was the special chilli sauce. It has hints of Assam which paired well with the fried chicken, and gave an additional spicy kick to the sambal sotong. Fantastic!

It is truly laborious to cook rice in individual aluminium cups, but if that’s how it’s traditionally done, kudos to Yes! Nasi Kukus for keeping to tradition. 

MissTamChiak.com made anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.

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