Talk:Nasi lemak

Regional differences
Unofficial national dish of Malaysia? I know many Singaporeans who would dispute that. I also lived in Malaysia (Kelantan and Selagor) for many years, but never heard of it until I spent some time in Singapore. So: how well known is Nasi Lemak in Malaysia outside of KL and maybe Johor?

What?!?!?! You haven't heard of it??!! Nasi lemak is EVERYWHERE in Malaysia!! It's my fave food!! I eat it EVERY single morning!! In kelantan, the nasi lemak is more to the echovies. They add a lot of enchovies! Go back to Malaysia and find a stall that sell nasi lemak!

Obviously you're not local. Maybe you never mixed with locals while you'e in Selangor?

More interesting, though, are the differences in the way it's served. I like eating a curry with nasi lemak, but the Singaporeans tell me that this is WRONG, and it should be a fried egg and (dry) chicken wing. In KL it's easy to get it with curry. Is this, too, a regional difference?

Groogle 05:47, 30 July 2006 (UTC)


 * It's a regional difference. It's almost always with curry in m'sia, and nearly always dry in Sing. I'm also aghast that the original commenter claimed to have lived in K'tan and Selangor and never seen Nasi Lemak. Did you spend your time here locked in a box or something? Borisblue 14:31, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Whether you're in Singapore or Malaysia, or in KL or not, different restaurants, not to mention different cooks, will of course have DIFFERENT styles of preparing it. Even the Chinese have come up with a non-halal version and vegetarian versions218.208.243.8 (talk) 14:28, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Traditional nasi lemak is to be served with the following five things:

cucumbers egg (hardboiled or fried) anchovies fried peanuts sambal

The sambal defines the nasi lemak. 65.204.193.30 (talk) 14:45, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Nasi Dagang
Nasi Dagang as the Kelantanese & Terengganu version of Nasi Lemak? I've never heard such a thing. I'm from the East Coast of West Malaysia and have dozens of matriachal realatives in those states. Nasi Dagang is a totally different dish made from glutinous rice (white in Terengganu and Northern Kuantan and Brown in Kelantan). The gravy is different and Nasi Lemak is also a popular dish in those States.

Oh yes, Nasi Lemak has also become a popular dish in Taiwan (as with betel leaves) but some Taiwanese really enjoyed the Malaysian version more when they came to Malaysia. Remember when that Band from Taiwan made it public in the media?

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.19.57.10 (talk) 04:07, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

"Rich/creamy" or "fatty" rice?
Yes, "lemak" does literally mean "fat(ty)", but like some other words in the Malay language it can have multiple meanings as well. In this context it refers to the taste/texture of the dish, which is rich/creamy. It's the same reason why "masak lemak", another local dish, is so called, because like nasi lemak, it also uses a lot of coconut milk though it hardly contains any actual fat.

I haven't put up a cite for this, because there are many sources that both state "lemak" as meaning either "creamy" or "fatty". However I've crafted a sentence that I hope will be a compromise. 118.100.73.239 (talk) 06:38, 6 December 2011 (UTC)


 * That looks OK to me. WWGB (talk) 07:20, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

From Kamus Dewan Edisi Keempat (Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka) 1. sj zat minyak pd binatang (melekat pd daging), gemuk binatang: di bawah kulitnya terletak selapis ~ yg memanaskan badannya; ~ kambing; 2. = berlemak mengandungi lemak atau minyak: ikan dimasak ~; gulai ~; kerbau mandul banyak ~; 3. Mn sedap atau enak (rasa, pendengaran, dll): ~ lauk dikunyah-kunyah, ~ kata disebut-sebut; ~ santan, manis gula tidak sedar racun bermain; ~ ketam warna kejingga-jinggaan; ~ tulang sumsum dlm tulang; ~ penyelar daging prb memboroskan harta benda tuannya.

In English language, 'fat', may refer to the white-yellow substance connected to animal tissues or also as an adjective to refer to something fatty, greasy or sometimes rich. More often, in the case of food, the word fat refers to something oily or greasy. This is NOT the case for Nasi Lemak is not oily or greasy (a little bit from the coconut milk, but not like fried rice).

Therefore, it is completely inaccurate to use the adjective form, 'fatty', to describe the rice. The adjective form 'fatty' itself means something that is rounded or filled out, or containing a lot of fat. Which does not describe the rice.

Translating word for word in the literal sense, without understanding both languages (Malay and English) ruins the original meaning. I am strongly in favor of "rich/creamy" rice description in order to preserve the original context rather than blatant and baseless translation. Please ask any native Malay speaker. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.165.90.30 (talk) 22:43, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

Should "nasi lemak" be italicized?
As the article stands while I'm writing this, the term "nasi lemak" is sometimes in italics and sometimes not. MOS:Ety says one ought to italicize foreign words and phrases that are not in common usage among English speakers. Since that is very difficult to judge, MOS:Ety recommends using Meriam-Webster as a rule of thumb. "Nasi lemak" doesn't appear in that dictionary, so I think maybe I should italicize it. As an American, I had never heard of the dish, but I'm sure there are millions of English speakers who eat it all the time, so I'm at a loss about what to do! Bobnorwal (talk) 03:51, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

Nasi lemak since 1875? Anybody have access to this books? Dictionnaire malais-français - Page 574 Yosri (talk) 13:28, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

Merger Proposal

 * Merge - These two dishes are essentially variations of each other, but with a different name. They can easily be merged without removing content and simply categorizing them as variations. Adgggadggg (talk) 15:01, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Oppose Why should be merged when it is a "national dish" and most notably in the Malay areas? There is a plenty of Google Books results that would support the existent of this article. I believe this article still need more expansion with additional citation. Given around 4,790,000 Google Search results, I see that would support the "notable" of this article. ~ Muffin Wizard;) 05:30, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Heh, plus there is more results on the Google News archive to support the existent. Where is Nasi uduk and Nasi liwet?? I didn't found any results. ~ Muffin Wizard;) 05:46, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
 * To Hzh, I think you can expand this article now with the source links I found in Google. :) ~ Muffin Wizard;) 05:50, 1 April 2015 (UTC)


 * Oppose They are different dishes, therefore should not be merged. Just because they serve coconut rice with some other stuff doesn't mean they are the same.  You cannot serve nasi liwet or nasi uduk and call them nasi lemak.  Hzh (talk) 06:48, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
 * I'm not suggesting removing any real content, but rather moving it around. I'm just saying that since there is so much overlap, it can be combined and just listed under a subcategory under "Variations." Perhaps you can enlighten me further as to what makes these dishes that significantly different from one another as well?Adgggadggg (talk) 15:00, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Of course the move won't remove any content, but it still need a separate article. The rice might be same because the use of coconut milk. But the taste are definitely different. How can this Nasi lemak which traditionally prepared with anchovies along with red sambal (as the main ingredient), egg and cucumber merged with a dish that never use anchovy at all?? Plus why should this dish be merged to Indonesian cuisine? I see there have been an article that could listed all the coconut related rice without merging this article. ~ Muffin Wizard;) 15:43, 1 April 2015 (UTC)


 * I think there is a misunderstanding of why pages should not or should not be merged, see WP:MERGEREASON for why pages may or may not be merged. Firstly - they are not the same topic (reason #3 why they should not be merged).   For example, there are many different kinds of beef stew around the world, that doesn't mean you should merge beef bourguignon with beef Stroganoff - they are essentially different dishes with different ingredients, therefore they are different topics.  Secondly, you can put beef bourguignon with beef Stroganoff under beef stew (even though there isn't one at the moment), but you would still need separate pages for these dishes because of reasons #1 and #2 why merging should be avoided - they get too long and clunky when all the different beef stews are described in details, and each individual topic can be expanded into standalone article.  There is in fact already a page for Coconut rice as mentioned, and that is its function, to give us a broad idea of what different kinds of coconut rice there are around the world, but we would still need different pages for the different kinds of coconut rice.  Thirdly, there is the question of significance and notability - nasi lemak is generally considered the national dish of Malaysia, for that alone it needs a separate page itself.  You can argue for merging the pages for nasi liwet and nasi uduk under coconut rice, but you should not merge nasi lemak simply because of its significance. Hzh (talk) 20:50, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

Nasi lemak vs nasi uduk
There quite a few similiratities between nasi lemak which is coconut rice of Malaysian style and nasi udik wjic is of the same genre but of Indonesian origin. St morus (talk) 02:27, 9 October 2017 (UTC)

External links modified (February 2018)
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Now it's got it's own google doodle with a video - for 31/01/2019
was going to post a link to the offical google doodle video in youtube but that got blocked by your spam black list

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/nasi-lemak-google-doodle-recipe-malaysian-food-dish-breakfast-rice-coconut-milk-a8754481.html

https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/nasi-lemak-malaysian-dish-celebrated-with-google-doodle-a4053371.html

2A00:23C5:5610:A700:F8DB:68FA:54A6:B6B8 (talk) 13:03, 31 January 2019 (UTC)