Nasi Lemak

There is no meal as complete as the nasi lemak nor any that satisfies so completely all the senses connected with eating as this very common, almost taken-for-granted dish.

The traditional version comes wrapped in a banana leaf packed in the shape of a pyramid. Unfolding it is simplicity itself; straighten the folded leaf from under the package and it becomes a plate on which the food is displayed. On the centre of the leaf-plate sits a mound of white rice. On the rice, to one side is a quarter of hard-boiled egg, white and yellow. On the other side, two slices of crisp, green cucumber, deep-fried groundnuts and a smattering of the tiniest sprats, also deep fried. On the top of the rice on a small square of the same type of leaf that wraps the meal sits a spicy sambal - a deep red paste ground from onions, chillies, prawn-paste and sprats.

The aroma that rises when the parcel is opened will make even the most sate person eat, however full he is. You cannot resist the combined smell of the hot rice, the coconut milk in which it is boiled, the pungency of the sambal and the fresh smell of the banana leaf.

The best way to eat this genius of a meal is with your fingers. Mix the sambal altogether or a little bit at a time into the rice, add a nut, some sprats and bits of egg into the mixture and place them all in your mouth.

The rest is easy.