Matt's Malaysian Cafe, Newcomb, Geelong

I am so glad to find Nasi Kerabu here, even if it's across the Port Phillip Bay. We were in Geelong for holidays and was happy to find this restaurant. Nasi Kerabu is a traditional dish from Kelantan, one of the eastern states in Peninsula Malaysia. Nasi Kerabu can be translated to salad rice. Most of the restaurants in Melbourne serves West Malaysian food (cuisine from KL, Selangor, Penong and Melaka) so it was a happy dining day for me to find Nasi Kerabu here.

The restaurant is located in a quiet residential area in a strip of shops. The decor is pretty basic but does not detract from the food. There is a bain marie at the front which indicates there may be nasi kandar or nasi campur (rice with a mix of meat and vege dishes from the bain marie) but it was not available at the time of my visit.

We ordered combination hor fun ($13.90) and nasi kerabu ($18.90). The kuey teow is akin to the sar hor fun, but has onions and cruciferous vegetables which would not be found in sar hor fun. It had plenty of egg gravy sauce to cover the kuey teow.

The dish I was waiting for was nasi kerabu, because it is not easily found in the restaurants near my area. It is served with telur masin (salted egg) half, ulam (salad with cabbage, Vietnamese mint, bean sprouts, finely chopped long beans), fish crackers, kerisik ikan (fried dessicated coconut and fish - though I couldn't taste fish in the kerisik in this one), and fried chicken. It is usually served with budu (fermented anchovy sauce) and chilli water (birds eye chillies blended with vinegar, lime juice). It is a traditional food from Kelantan, one of the eastern states in Malaysia. 

From my observations, Kelantanese food are usually sweeter, is spicy, has more emphasis on fish and seafood for protein, and has more raw vegetables / salad. Kelantan borders Thailand, so some of the food has the characteristics of Thai food (i.e. salad, level of sweetness in the food).

The ulam, fried chicken and nasi bunga telang (butterfly pea flower rice, the flower gives the rice a distinctive blue colour) mixed well together with the kerisik, budu and chilli sauce. What I find interesting about nasi kerabu besides the blue hue rice, is the ulam. While it is commonplace for people in Western cultures to eat salad and raw foods, it is not the case in the Malaysian culture. Most vege dishes are cooked. My Chinese MIL refuses to eat anything raw (except fruits) because in the Chinese culture, eating raw foods can disrupt the yin/yang harmony and uncooked foods are not clean as there are no heating process to kill any germs that may be present in the food. Nasi kerabu is one of the few dishes which combines cooked hot food with a raw vege salad.

I enjoyed our lunch here and even had the chance to practice my rusty Bahasa Malaysia with the owner who took my order at the counter. He is a friendly and humble man who probably had no idea how much it meant to me that day to eat a traditional east Malaysian food and speaking BM to a fellow Malaysian. Just like home.