Street Food Warms Your Heart: Rumah Sayang at JEM

The Nasi Pattaya ($7.50) served at Rumah Sayang at JEM is made with core ingredients : fried rice, seafood, 70% blanched and diced fresh prawns (not butterflied not de-veined), diced (frozen) chicken breast meat, chicken ham, eggs, silver fish, long beans that are thinly sliced, a little pepper, sambal tomis (lends a bitter, sweet, spicy flavor) with special Nasi Pattaya chili paste (made with garlic, chili, ginger, dried shrimp, dried fried ikan bilis, a dash of chili padi), tomato paste.

How it is prepared : This dish is prepared ala minute. Once the order is placed, Chef Lo fries the Thai fragrant whole grain white rice with the rempah (made up of the sambal tomis, tomato paste and the Nasi Pattaya chili paste) in 3-4 minutes, adds in all the rest of the ingredients, then wrap them with a layer of fried egg ( using fork and spoon ) to serve.

Food Tasting Notes : The fried rice has a very fragrant smell that leeks of dried shrimp, and taste sweeter because of the tomato paste that Chef Lo uses. The special sambal tomis lends a spicy mildly bitter tinge that is well balanced by the sweetness that comes from the tomato paste. This dish tastes exactly like Mum's cooking, and is very appetizing in part due to the creative use of both the sweet and spicy pastes combined in the right proportion, and fried using medium heat, to bring out the flavor of the many spices used in the chili paste, lending a uniquely spicy sweet flavor to the dish.