NEAR THE FAR end of Tomas Morato Avenue in Quezon City, a new restaurant has been quietly luring diners these past seven months with its authentic Asian cuisine. This is Nasi Lemak, a small cozy restaurant just across the big McDonald’s outlet with French fries on its roof.
There’s a queue at lunch and dinner on weekends, and during weekdays at peak hours, the restaurant gets almost full too. And it’s all due to word of mouth, as satisfied customers rave about the tasty dishes, mostly Singaporean, at reasonable prices.
Restaurant consultant H.K. Tan, a Singaporean, says they are very particular about the quality of the food they serve, to the point of being paranoid. “We import ingredients to be assured of consistent quality,” he says. They also don’t scrimp on the ingredients to be used in the dishes so as to give customers the real deal.
But it’s a true blue Filipina, Cora Lelina, who owns the business with her family. Cora worked in Singapore for 20 years as personal assistant to a paper industry executive. In the course of her work, she would travel to many countries with her boss, exposing her to a lot of cuisine.
Since she was based in Singapore, Cora developed a taste for Asian food, and can cook it well. In the end, when her boss passed away last year, Cora decided to come back home to the Philippines. “I have been abroad for half of my life. I went back here to try life here,” she says. And since she has long planned to have a business, Cora invested in the food business in the Philippines upon the advice of her longtime friend, H.K. Tan.
Tan has been coming to the Philippines for business for the past 10 to 15 years. He noted that there are many Spanish and Italian restaurants here already. As for Chinese restaurants, most of them use vetsin which isn’t really healthy. This is why he advised Cora to go for Singaporean food, and offer other Asian dishes as well, without MSG of course.
Popular items on the menu includes Kueh Pai Ti, a sort of fried lumpia with lettuce, turnip, carrots, and prawn on top to be popped in whole in the mouth.
There’s Hainanese Chicken, a favorite in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong; the lightly spicy Malaysian Sambal Fish, which is crispy outside and tender inside; Japanese Tofu Sautéed with Prawns; Singapore Laksa, a noodle dish with spicy coconut gravy which you can have with either prawns or chicken; and Stir-Fried Kang Kong with Blachan, among others. Of course, there’s Nasi Lemak, a dish like our binalot, which is rice cooked with pandan and coconut cream. The Onde Onde dessert is like our pichi pichi but with a filling consisting of palm tree nectar.
“We didn’t expect this kind of success,” Tan says. It’s Cora’s first business venture. But they’re handling it well, putting a premium on customer service. Tan takes the time to train the chefs and educate customers on the dishes and how best to eat them. They also offer delivery service. And there’s free wifi too. This early, they’re already looking at opening branches in other locations.
(All photos courtesy of Nasi Lemak)
April 20th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
hi, i think this is good. i think about little matters like that shouldn’t matter. i have live myself in Indonesia for seven years and I have live in Singapore as well. so, I just like to congratulate you. I’m sure to visit your restaurant as soon as go home for my vacation. God bless.
April 20th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Yes Cleo,
I agree with what you are saying. Nasi Lemak is also popular in Singapore as well as Malaysia and Indonesia. The restaurant serves very good Nasi Lemak also, besides serving Singaporean Chinese and cuisine from Malaysia and Indonesia.
They are looking for a good recipe for Indonesian Beef Rendang, if you have such recipe they will be most delighted to try it out.
Lemak in Malaysia and Singapore means food that is cooked with coconut cream, some people like yourself relate it to “coconut FAT”.
Nasi Lemak is one of the popular dish in Singapore, so why not use Nasi Lemak as a name for a restaurant serving popular dishes of Singapore.
April 20th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
The name is fine. What’s the big deal Cleo? Amidst the bigger issues you’re nitpicking on just a name!
Singapore is 1/3 malay. The cook learned the dishes in Singapore. If she’s cooking chinese dishes and calls them singaporean food i wouldn’t mind, what’s the big deal?
One traits I would like to see gone from Filipinos are being grossly vain thinking their way is always the right way.
April 20th, 2008 at 10:20 am
that is so cool, it’s like a treat to bring a different kind of cuisine in our country. but i also hope that they would also promote filipino dishes . in the U.S. and here in Canada , filipino dishes are not known, aside from chinese which is already known worldwide , thai , indian , and vietnamese cuisine are slowly being introduced. i said to myself , why not somebody would dedicate introducing our very own globally. of course, we need to improve a lot in our cuisine , people dont just go for taste , we need to consider presentation and colors too. when we serve americans and canadians with our food , they find it unattractive , and they would not give it a try , instead they would go yuckkkkkyyy!
April 20th, 2008 at 8:38 am
we are excited to try the place! my husband’s family has been in singapore since the early 80’s. he came back to the philippines when we got married. his gripe has always been unavailability of food he has gotten used to in singapore. we’d get a taste of his favourites only when we’d visit family in singapore, and that’s like at least only twice a year. thanks, cora!