Nasi Lemak 2.0

Image borrowed from Wikipedia

Official website: http://www.nasilemak2.com/020220.html

Finally gotten to watch Nasi Lemak 2.0, a film directed by Namewee. This is the second movie review I have done in this blog, the first one being Julie and Julia. Overall, the movie and plot line is not bad, especially since this is a low budget movie filmed entirely with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and also Name Wee's first movie on big screen. Many familiar local faces had joined the making of this film like Adibah Noor, Afdlin Shauki, Reshmonu, Karen Kong and David Arumugam from the Alleycats. Did you know Karen Kong was from Labuan, Sabah?

The movie revolves around a local 'hero' Huang Da Xia played by Namewee, who is always approached by the local Chinese community for help in various matters, big or small. He would record the people's plight and upload it to his Youtube account. He worked as a chef specialized in authentic Chinese cooking, but his restaurant does not appeal to the local patrons and he hardly gets any business. On the other side, a hawker stall owned by Adibah Noor had always attracted many local customers of all races and ages. Her Nasi Lemak stall has become a source of scorn and envy from Huang Da Xia, he didn't think Chinese should be supporting this sort of local dish as it is not originated from China, little did he know, the dish-Nasi Lemak will be teaching him an important lesson of harmonious coexistence among all races.

His journey began when Xiao K, played by Karen Kong who approached Huang Da Xia to help her father to win back the ownership of his restaurant through a cooking contest. His involvement had brought a lot of trouble to himself and his restaurant, during the lowest moment in his life, one of the Chinese patrons had brought him a packet of nasi lemak, he was hesitant at first but once he'd taken the first mouthful, he was mesmerized by how delicious the dish actually was. This drives him to discover Kak Nor's secret in preparing her nasi lemak, after many trials and errors, Kak Nor finally decided to help send him towards a journey to learn the secret of nasi lemak.

Throughout the journey, he and Xiao K had met people of different races, background and cultures, not only had they taught him the secret of nasi lemak, they also taught him the spirit of 1 Malaysia, of how different culture and races played a role in creating the Malaysia we all lived in today. The Peranakan (Baba-Nyonya) couple taught him how to make the sambal, where the cooking style is a mix of Chinese and local Malays. Next stop where an Indian father and daughter had taught him to cook the curry which originates from India,  lastly, where a Malay fisherman, his four wives and countless children had saved him from a car accident, while living with them, they had taught the two about the importance of living together harmoniously despite the differences between all races.

This movie had a theme in which most Malaysians can relate to, the various dialects used such as Hakka, Hokkien, Cantonese and Mandarin, also other local languages like Malay, Tamil and English must be most familiar and yet close  to our hearts. The nasi lemak represented the essence of all our culture combined, each detail is different, but yet they combined so harmoniously within a dish. It is one of our Malaysian National dish. Go watch if you haven't, if given the support and funds, Namewee could be the making of the next Jake Neo in Malaysia.

I have a sudden craving for nasi lemak, tomorrow is a public holiday, I'm going out to find some. The best nasi lemak I've tried is from Bits and Bites at Wisma Merdeka, the rice is fragrant from the coconut milk and does not stick together in clumps, the sambal is tasty and not too spicy for my taste and they gave a generous halved hard boiled egg, unlike some stingy place who gives a quarter slice or worst, only 1/6! Eggs aren't that expensive, why be stingy?