Report 3: Selera Rasa

Location: Adam Road Food Centre -  2 Adam Rd, Singapore 289876

Taste-type: Malaysian

Price: From $2.50 to $5; Full House set $4.00

How to get there: Taxi. Try a bus if you feel lucky.

Contact: (65) 98434509

We arrive at 1300hrs by means of skydrop, taking stock quickly of the numerous locals flocking towards our insertion point. I have been ordered explicitly not to engage, but rather observe the goings-on within the open-air dome that is the Adam Food Centre. Our spies in the area have reported odd, seemingly narcotic-related behaviour amongst the locals, and when I examine further the source becomes clear to me. I move in, sneaking past somnabulistic Singaporeans, trying to get closer to see just what it is these minions worship. I reach the front of the queue.

Warm rice with the tender fragrance of paradise. Dulcet chicken-wings matched with piquant sambal, the colour of over-oxygenated blood and just as intoxicating. A fried egg, bulging at its membranes. Cucumber. And lithe smoothness of coconut rice slithering all over my tongue, filling my arteries. My titanium core bathed in coconut milk. I swoon.

Some time later, I awake. After rehabilitation with the aid of ancient Japanese herbs and the butt of a spear, I regain coherence. I can report on the quixotic monikers of each set of Nasi Lemak offered by Selera Rasa, or give a brief insight into the royal pedigree of this humble hawker stand’s migration into the modern age of coffee connossieurs and malls multiplying faster than their patrons. I can wax lyrical on the owners’ rowdy charm, or the small marvels of their highly efficient supply chain, or even the lacklustre performance of their neighbours which puts them in even higher worship. But when I report finally to my shadowy superiors, all I say is this:

Selera Rasa’s is the crack cocaine of nasi lemak.

And that is why we return to get ration-packs.

Concluding Remarks: The epitome of nasi lemak, Selera Rasa’s coconut rice has achieved the elusive equilibrium of coconut taste and texture. All other ingredients – the spicily juicy otak-otak, the freshly fried chicken, even the heaty-sweet sambal – play second fiddle to the rice. An addiction hard to break indeed.

Close

Tagged as: adam food center, adam food centre, adam food court, adam rd, adam rd nasi lemak, adam rd nasi lemak review, addictive, awesome ninja picks, banana leaf, best nasi lemak singapore, chicken, chicken nasi lemak, chronic ramen, coconut, coconut milk, coconut rice, crack cocaine, fried chicken, fried egg, full house, hawker food, hawker stall, ikan bilis, lee kuan yew, lemak, malaysian, nasi, nasi lemak, nasi lemak adam rd, otak-otak, review, royal flush, royal rumble, sambal, selera rasa, selera rasa nasi lemak, selera rasa nasi lemak review, selera rasa reivew, selera rasa sambal, singapore