Bamboo Nasi Rendang⁣

Cooking rice in bamboo pole is not uncommon in South-East Asia and amongst certain minority ethnic groups in China Yunnan Province. In most places, sticky or glutinous rice is used just like the popular Malay festive lemang that uses glutinous rice and coconut milk.

Lately, we heard about this new stall in Chinatown market selling Nasi Rendang cooked in bamboo and decided to check it out. We pre-ordered the Bamboo Nasi Rendang few days in advance as advised by the owner. True enough, the “Sold Out” sign was up even before the stall started operation when we arrived. Here, lemak basmati rice instead of glutinous rice is used. In fact, it is the same rice that they serve in their nasi lemak dishes. The rice, together with their signature rendang meat (chicken, beef, lamb shank and prawn), is wrapped in aromatic leaf called daun lerek and steamed in bamboo poles for 3 hours.

The rendang meat is tender and has a good depth and complexity of flavour. Each plate of the bamboo nas