Stinky Food

[GlorifiedRice]

But of course no offense is taken, rest assured.  

 

For clarity's sake, anyway (and for others reading this) one should not have to add belacan to the first three dishes you mentioned as served.  That would be almost unheard of.  

 

Depending on the variety of laksa you had there may or may not have been some belacan added into the rempah, the spice mix that is ground together preparatory to cooking and creating the dish.  With the chicken rendang, unlikely. Restauranteurs in the West, however, might omit the belacan when making such dishes (even if the recipe they are using would traditionally call for it) for "general Western clientele consumption", much for reasons as you have attested to.  Heh. The nasi lemak, if it was traditional nasi lemak, would almost certainly have had some accompanying sambal with it, most likely sambal ikan bilis.  Most folks in Malaysia would make this with belacan in it.  So - what's that they say - don't watch sausages being made. :-) 

 

 

I made all these myself...I recall when I made the Laksa I think I bought the grey shrimp paste in the jar, cause the recipe stated "shrimp paste" not Belacan...I didnt know any better. It was good.

The Sambal in the Nasi Lemak was the ikan bilis kind and was fabulous.