Saturday, May 12, 2012

Nasi Katok

Well, I haven't much acquaintance with Nasi Katok, apart form the fact that it is often associated with our neighbouring country, Brunei Darussalam. A search online, however, reveals much.

First up, "Katok" means "knock" in the Malay language. There might be variations of how the name came about, but basically according to what I'd read, there was this enterprising Chinese man who sold packed rice till late at night, and patrons who wished to buy roused him from the comfort of his bed, just by knocking on his door. Of course, that was way before McDonald's drive-thru was available ...

Hmn .... the concept of knocking somehow reminds me of Matthew 7 : 7 -  “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Lol ... pardon the digression ...

Further readings reveal that Nasi Katok is essentially made up of rice, sambal and fried chicken. And today, Nasi Katok is sold right here in Miri. I know of a stall at the weekly night market which does. And according to my colleague, there is a roadside stall at Luak that sells it too. He volunteers to buy it for us. Yayy!

Bright and early this morning, I received my Nasi Katok, wrapped in a brown paper. It cost me only RM2.00.

Nasi Katok, wrapped creatively and compactly in a cone ...
There were 2 types which he bought : one was "biasa", indicating that the sambal was mild, while the other was "pedas" so it had fiery sambal. I chose the spicier version.

 I opened up my Nasi Katok for lunch ...
There was so much rice, and I ate only about a third of the portion with the sambal. It was not very spicy at all, and had the pungent flavours from the use of minced onions and prawn paste. The chicken was a huge chunk too! I had my Nasi Katok cold, so I suppose that was why it was not so enjoyable any longer. Imagine if it had been served hot ..... it would have been a wonderful and reasonably cheap meal!


No comments:

Post a Comment

Revisiting Miri

I went back to Miri for the first time in 7 years and 10 months.  Miri Waterfront I left Miri in 2014, and years have passed in a blink of a...