Entree Kibbles: Nasi Lemak Ayam Goreng from Village Park Restaurant @ Petaling Jaya in Malaysia

The way that Malaysian standup comedian, Joanne Kam, lambasted the differences between Singapore style and Malaysia style nasi lemak motivated me to check out the most famous nasi lemak eatery when I was at Petaling Jaya (PJ) recently; Village Park Restaurant!

Aside from the newspaper cuttings, I heard this place was also popular amongst Singaporeans; even my niece and nephew had tried it before. A fact I knew after returning back to Singapore from PJ.

I was totally expecting a long queue on a Sunday afternoon and decided to check it out at close to 4.00 pm, before their official closing at 5.00 pm. No queue (except for delivery riders / driver awaiting from their orders), biy from the look of the trays of dishes; well, didn't seem to have much food for us too!

Thankfully, there were still the ayam goreng, Malay for fried chicken! I didn't need much for nasi lemak, fried chicken with rice and egg would have been sufficient to curb my craving.

Despite the lack of a line outside the restaurant, the dining area was packed with customers! Guess there are many people like me, who like to avoid peak periods like lunch and dinner. Now, let's order quickly as I was absolutely famished!

Nasi Lemak Ayam Goreng - there were eight types of nasi lemak (with options for chicken rendang, beef, prawns, sotong, fish etc) and I chose this as it was the first item on the list, and I can't resist fried chicken!

In Singapore, the chicken in question would usually be drumstick or chicken wing, and not as luxurious as the whole chicken thigh as depicted in the above photo! That, to me, is already a winner! Hold your horses, let me take a bite first.

It was unbeatably delicious; juicy chicken infused strongly with rempah and blessed with a crispy crust! Adding on to that were the large, crunchy peanuts and a generous serving of sambal (I agreed with Joanne Kam; Singapore's sambal was so pathetically little) similar to those served in Malay nasi padang stalls which I thoroughly enjoyed!

Leaving the best for the last; the thin, crisp fried chicken skin! Not everything was perfect; the rice was aromatic although it didn't quite commensurate with an intense coconut milk taste. The saving graces were that the rice wasn't oily and honestly, would still be considered as pretty good for Singapore's standard.

But I admit, this Malaysia style nasi lemak is better than the ones in Singapore, more so when the price for it was only about S$3.60 after conversion! In Singapore, I would have to pay extra for the peanuts.

p.s. extra sambal was chargeable at RM 0.80. I usually request for extra chilli in Singapore but the one at Village Park was sufficient for me.

Damn, I should have purchased their bottles of sambal. It would have been nice with raw, cold cucumbers! Anyway, my PJ friend was telling me the nearby Say Yes Cafe had better nasi lemak; guess it's a good enough reason for me to pay another visit to PJ in the near future!