Holland Village Nasi Lemak & Laksa

I just wanted to blog about the Nasi Lemak and Laksa at Holland Village. For the benefit of my non-Singaporean friends who might be reading this, Nasi Lemak is this Malay dish in Singapore that consists of coconut rice (which is sometimes cooked with pandan leaves for added aroma) served with anchovies (ikan bilis), cucumber, egg, peanuts, chicken wings and other side dishes that is up to each individual's preference.

SH and I chose different side dishes. I chose the chicken wings, beans, taiwan sausage (simply because I hadn't eaten it for 5 mths!), and the chili egg. I like the affordability of the Nasi Lemak- about $3 plus usually. SH ordered his with chicken slices, sausage, vegetables and fish slices (I think).
The most important part of a Nasi Lemak would be the chili! The rice is very important as well, but the chili is what differentiates a Grade A dish from a Grade B!

Unfortunately on the day SH and I went, the standard seemed to have dropped. The rice wasn't all that fragrant, which is really important and essential for a good Nasi Lemak, and the chili wasn't sweet or spicy enough. I was quite disappointed because we have been to the stall a few times and most often, the standard of the Nasi Lemak was very good. What with the Channel U's food icon displayed, you would think that the standard would be maintained. Alas, it was not to be! SH speculated that this could have been due to a case of different chefs' cooking. True enough, the next day when we passed by, we saw different women manning the stall. Nasi Lemak: 2.5/5

The same went for the Laksa. The broth was not thick enough and there wasn't enough "kick" in it! It wasn't spicy enough for my liking, and it just didn't taste as good as I remembered it to be. Furthermore this stall (in the same shop as the Holland V's Nasi Lemak) claimed to sell the famed Katong "328" lasksa. Puzzling moment was: Which part tasted like Katong's Laksa eh?

Besides the short noodles which you could scoop out with a spoon, the mediocre Laksa soup and the bland ingredients didn't do anything to fuel the "Katong Laksa" claim.

But the portions of our serving were rather generous. The prawns, "hum" (sea cockles??), and fishcakes, were adequate and the noodles and Laksa soup went down pretty well in my stomach. Though it wasn't "wow, mmmmm...", it was "uh huh....ok...". Laksa: 2.5/5
I think I shall pay a visit to Katong again one day and eat the Laksa that J, W and I were pining for so much in Canada! I realised one thing also while in Canada... Singaporean Laksa is really very different from other countries Laksas, including Malaysia's! Our Laksa tend to be thicker, spicer, with more seafood, and with fatter noodles, and we tend to use alot of coconut milk in our dish! Yet I wouldn't say that our Laksa is much better, instead, the different tastes of each unique Laksa in the varying countries all have their own highlights.

Ambience: 1.5/5 (Typical coffeeshop, unless you consider the spots by the roadside as pretty good, considering you can people-watch and car-watch!!)
Service: What service? It's self-service!
Food: 2.5/5