Nasi Kerabu, The Flavours of Kelantan and Malaysia

Introduction

Nasi Kerabu is a local dish of Kelantan, Malaysia and it has been a famous dish in
Malaysia that indicates the East coast of Peninsular Malaysia. This dish is a Malay traditional
dish which has an outstanding characteristics in its apperance, fragrance, taste, and even the
crisps of the “keropok” sounds promising. All the five senses pleasure blends together in one
dish. And the most importantly, it is nutritionally balanced. Based on a study made by Ramli
et al (2017), the second most mentioned traditional food by 500 participants were Nasi Kerabu
right behind of Nasi Lemak, which shows that it is highly recognised in not just only the East
Coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

Figure 1: A visual of Nasi Kerabu

Cultural background of the food

While some claimed that Nasi Kerabu is the blend of Malay and Thai culture (Hakim
et al, n.d.) while some claimed that it is a fusion of culture from Chinese and Thai, which is
commonly known as the Kelantan Peranakan (The Star, 2016), nonetheless it is surely heavily
influenced by the neighbouring country, Thailand. Personally, in my opinion, the food has
evolved according to time, which it blends Thai, Chinese and Malay cuisine specialty into it.
Ainuddin quoted, Malay food is recognised with five distinct features: (1) use of herbs and
spices for richness of flavour; (2) use of coconut milk as one of the main ingredients; (3) certain
degree of spiciness; (4) thick and rich gravy encovers the meat; and (5) turmeric powder coated
fried fish and seafood. Whereas Kelantan Peranakan are also experts in using herbs for dishes.
Ingredients and Preparation

Rice is of course the main course of the food. The rice of Nasi Kerabu can be found in
3 variable colours, which are blue, green and yellow respectively. Blue colour rice is the most
common to be found which they were made from natural flowers called butterfly pea flowers
for Chinese or also known as the Asian Pigeonwings. The flowers are cooked so that the blue
colour can be extracted. Once the desirable colour of the water is obtained, it is used to cook
the rice that is washed. To obtain green colour rice, Mengkudu leaves are used instead whereas
turmeric powder is used to give yellow colour rice.

There will be a serving of protein in this dish, which can be normally either barbecued
chicken or barbecued beef. However, chicken curry, beef curry, fried fish, fish curry are also
available as an option but comparatively less popular than the barbecued ones. Besides, chicken,
beef and fish, the signature dish will also serves half of a salted egg. Without the salted egg? It
will not be the local taste!

Figure 2: Nasi Kerabu in its variance appearance with different rice colours, different
proteins served and different vegetables served.
 The interesting part of the dish is that it has a lot of vegetables in it. Normally, local
traditional dishes in Malaysia compromises a prefereence of taste and flavour over health which
can be seen in Nasi Lemak, Char Kuey Teow, Pisang Goreng and the high fat long list goes on.
But surprisingly, Nasi Kerabu, similar to Nasi Ulam provides huge portion of raw vegetables.
The normal vegetables served includes the four-angled beans, string beans, beansprouts,
cabbages, purple cabbages, carrots and the most important and lovely ginger flower.

Figure 3 Raw vegetables for Nasi Kerabu

Last but not least, what makes Nasi Kerabu more special is the side dishes, the toppings
and the sauces that is added to it like the Solok lada, the sambal kelapa, sambal tumis, sambal
lada, budu and the keropok (fish crackers).

Solok Lada or known as stuffed chilli is available as side dish which is as the name
suggested, a chilli that is stuffed with fillings. As much as how American love cheese,
Malaysians like coconut in almost every dishes. The fillings of stuffed chilli is a mixture of
pounded fish and grated fried coconut that is seasoned with spices.

Figure 4 Solok Lada

 Grated coconuts are then used again as the toppings of the rice to give a sweety
and yet aromatic flavour and taste to the rice. It can be solely fried grated coconut, or it can be
a mixture of grated coconuts, shallots, chillies, belacan or even pounded fish grinded and fried
together, which it depends on the preference. The other two sambals, the sambal tumis and
sambal lada adds on spiciness to the dish. Sambal tumis santan is similar to the chicken curry
santan gravy avalable in Malaysia while sambal lada differs according to the provider of the
food. Some serves sweeter taste, while some are sweet and sour with the addition of lime. Some
freshly pound and mixed the ingredients to produce the sambal while some add belacan and
fried to produce the sambal. Then, a salty sauce called budu which is fermented anchovies
sauce is also added to the rice as preference. Some people doesn’t like it due to the strong taste
while some loves it very much and claims that Nasi Kerabu would be imperfect without Budu.
And of course our fish crackers, Keropok while add the crunchiness to the dish and it is
something that would definitely made us non-stop eating as fish crackers are so famous in
Kelantan and Terengganu in Malaysia!

Figure 5 Ingredientsfor Nasi Kerabu

How is it served

Nasi Kerabu is served nicely which all the proteins, vegetables, toppings are placed
neatly either on the plate, or on banana leaves. The consumer can choose to either mix and eat
them which normal people would do, or either eat them portion by portion. The consumers
could also choose to either eat it with hands of kitchen cutlery based on the convenience.

Figure 6 Nasi Kerabu can be served either on banana leaf or plate

Figure 7 Mixing all the food inside the plate before consuming Nasi Kerabu

Figure 8 Eating either with fork and spoon or with hands

 Traditionally, Nasi Kerabu is sold at stalls where all the vegetables and proteins are
displayed. The consumers would line up in front of the stall, pointing at the choices they want
and then the seller would put them either into a plate for dining in or into a food wrapper for
take away. However, now in modern days, there are Nasi Kerabu sold in air-conditioned
restaurants which the choices are in the menu instead of at the trays for display. Nasi Kerabu
was hard to retrieved back then but during these few years, a lot of restaurants selling Nasi
Kerabu has emerged and it can be obtained in every places in Malaysia.

Figure 9 Nasi Kerabu sold at local hawker stall in Kelantan, Malaysia.

Figure 10 Nasi Kerabu sold at air-conditioned restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Conclusion

This food is served throughout the whole year and consumed by every ethnicity in
Malaysia. The prices of the dish ranges from RM 2.50 to RM 20 which depends on the side
dishes served and the places the consumers had consumed the rice. The reason that why is it so
unique that it can represent Kelantan or even representing Malaysia is because of its
outstanding features. Its visuals are vibrant and eye-catching, its flavour is aromatic with spices
added in throughout the cooking process, it has wonderful taste of a blend of sweet, sour, salty
and spiciness. This food is valuable for its price with the protein supplied and the vegetables
included. It is definitely a diet that can be consumed by all Malaysians.

Reference

Ainuddin, A. H. (2013) "Malaysia cuisine for professional student." Kuala Lumpur

(Malaysia): Utusan Publication & Distribution Sdn Bhd.

Ramli, A., et.al. (2017). Knowledge on the Malaysian Food Heritage. Asian Journal
of Quality of Life, AjQoL, 2(5), Jan. / Mar. 2017 (p.31-42).

Wong, J. (2016, September 16). Kelantan: Nasi Kerabu. The Star Newspaper.
Retrieved 21 November, 2020 from
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/09/16/kelantan-nasi-kerabu/