Former Insurance Agent Sells Unusual Nasi Lemak With Flame-Torched Pork Belly & Balinese Sambal
The words “nasi lemak” and “babi” (pork in Malay) seem like an unlikely pairing - but at H. Village Park Nasi Lemak, there’s not just one, but two “nasi lemak babi” dishes. The two-month-old stall is located at a coffee shop in Holland Drive, and specialises in “Indonesian-fusion” nasi lemak inspired by Balinese dishes. If you find its name familiar, well it’s heavily influenced by popular nasi lemak eatery Village Park Restaurant in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, which one of the hawkers visited before and loved.
No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg.
What exactly is nasi lemak babi? According to this stall owner, it’s basically quintessential nasi lemak — coconut rice, ikan bilis, egg etc, paired with flame-torched pork belly (more on this later). Some variations of this dish can also be found in parts of Malaysia.
We haven’t seen nasi lemak served with pork in Indonesia before, but we’re told this fusion version takes inspiration loosely from Balinese dishes like babi guling (spit roasted pig).
From insurance agent to hawker
H. Village Park Nasi Lemak is set up by Marcus Wong (pictured), 28, and Leong Jun Jie, 34.
Marcus is in charge of the cooking, while Jun Jie manages back-end work. They met when they were both working in insurance - Jun Jie was Marcus’ ex-insurance director.
Marcus started his career as an insurance agent, before dabbling in crypto for a while as a moderator for projects (since he wasn’t involved in trading, he made no losses or gains). Shortly after, Jun Jie approached him to start an F&B business: “Jun Jie wanted to start an F&B business, and he asked me to join him. Since he’s still doing insurance full-time, he needed a partner who could take this biz on as a full-time job,” he explains.
But why go from insurance to crypto to hawker? “I’ve always had a bit of interest in F&B, and I think F&B is stable ’cos everybody has to eat,” he laughs. He adds that he has a diploma in hospitality from Temasek Polytechnic, where he was briefly exposed to the F&B industry. He learned how to cook basic nasi lemak from his caterer pal, but later tweaked the recipe with his own twists.
“Indonesian-inspired” pork nasi lemak for $8
Marcus says they decided to sell nasi lemak babi to differentiate themselves from other nasi lemak joints. “It’s more like Indonesian-inspired nasi lemak. We were thinking of going the less traditional [route], so we incorporated some Indonesian style into it, which is why we came up with the idea to add pork,” he says.
Currently, H. Village Park Nasi Lemak sells two types of nasi lemak babi dishes - Nasi Lemak Babi Sambal Matah (served with sambal matah, $8) and Nasi Lemak Babi Geprek (served with sambal geprek, $8).
How is his “Indonesian-inspired” nasi lemak prepared? Says Marcus: “The main protein is oven-roasted pork belly from Brazil, marinated with rempah (spice blend). We flame torch it upon order to get the smoky feel”. The dish is then accompanied with either sambal matah or sambal geprek. Sambal matah is a raw Balinese-style sambal made with chillies, shallots and lemongrass, and finished off with hot coconut oil, while sambal geprek is a spicy Indonesian concoction usually blended with chilli padi.
If you’re looking for something pork-free, the stall also sells Nasi Lemak Otah ($6.50), Ayam Goreng Nasi Lemak ($8) and the Indonesian-influenced Ayam Geprek Nasi Lemak ($8).
Shares a unit with Japanese stall
H. Village Park Nasi Lemak shares a unit with another of Marcus and Jun Jie’s shops, Oishii. They opened Oishii last year as a takeaway kiosk selling Japanese bento sets at Tampines Central, but shut it down shortly as “business was stagnant”.
They invested about $200K into Oishii’s first outlet, and made a rough $20K loss before moving to this coffeeshop in April this year. They work with two other silent investors and they all invested another $20K into this biz. In the beginning, their stall unit was dedicated to just Oishii, but they realised it was big enough to house two concepts, and decided to start selling nasi lemak as well. “Nasi lemak was one of the ideas we had, since we can share some of the same ingredients and cooking equipment. Having two streams of revenue is much better,” Marcus explains.
Marcus stations himself at H. Village Park to cook nasi lemak on most days, while a hired cook mans the Japanese side.
Interestingly, both stalls are closed on Friday, usually thought to be the start of the busy weekend. He reasons: “After opening this stall for one month, we felt that Friday was the slowest day in terms of sales, because I think a lot of people in the offices nearby work from home instead. Also, people usually head out to eat something a bit fancier on Fridays.”
The details
H. Village Park Nasi Lemak is at #01-39, 40 Holland Dr, S270040. Open Mon - Thu; Sat - Sun 11.30am - 8.30pm. Closed on Fri. Tel: 9336 8052.
Photos: H. Village Park Nasi Lemak
No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg.
8days.sg is now on #tiktok! Follow us on www.tiktok.com/@8dayseat
Listen Now
Related Stories
Shopping
