Nasi Lemak and Teh Tarik Workshop at Green Tomato Cafe

I would say nasi lemak is by far one of the best breakfast for me and I will agree if someone or an organization want to it as one of our national food. Serve it together with a cup of teh tarik (pulled tea), it's a perfect match. I had never cooked nasi lemak from scratch and the opportunity to attend a nasi lemak and teh tarik workshop made me feel excited.

Thanks to Green Tomato Cafe, I was given a two hour workshop to cook nasi lemak and to make my own teh tarik. The cafe is located at Yayasan Seni which is pretty close to Gleneagles Hospital along Jalan Ampang. Green Tomato Café (GTC) is located next to myBatik workshop where visitors can view the batik making process and try the hands-on experience. MyBatik is founded by batik Artist Emilia Tan since 2004 and now she is promoting traditional local cuisine cooking workshop in Green Tomato Café on a daily basis. The on-boarding of Chef Rica inspired Emilia to push the traditional cooking workshop into the public.



To cook nasi lemak, we need to prepare some of the ingredients as you can see at the picture above. All the ingredients are quite easy to get and they are available at supermarket and pasar.



The first thing we did is to wash the rice and prepare it for cooking. I have been told that the most important element of a nasi lemak is the rice. It needs to be fragrant and not too dry. Before this, I thought it was the sambal but then I realized that some might prefer it saltier, sweeter or spicier depends on the one who's cooking it but the rice has a certain standard to follow.



Hard boiled egg can also be prepared at the same time. I usually prefer having it sunny side up and I wonder if there's anyone tried nasi lemak with scrambled, poached or soft boiled eggs before.

That's me posing for the camera before frying the peanuts. Do I like a pro?

Almost done frying the anchovies and you can see the peanuts has already done. These two elements are also very important for a nasi lemak. Why? Do you remember Chef Wan's nasi lemak telanjang incident? Don't forget about the cucumbers too, or else it's still gonna be called that.



Chop chop chop that fresh cucumber. I hate those dry and refrigerated ones.



For the sambal, we used dried chili, onion, garlic, lemongrass, pandan leaves and oil. So what are the amount for each ingredients? Don't be lazy and go attend the workshop to find out about it.

At the picture above, the dried chili is cleaned and boiled before blending it with the rest of the ingredients.



Put in some of the sambal ingredients and.....

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Blend! Blend! Blend! Blend thoroughly until all the ingredients became like a thick liquid.



After that we fried the onions and lemongrass. Can also put in some pandan leaves to make it fragrant.



Pour in the blended mixture earlier on to the pan and continue cooking it until the sambal turned brownish red. We added salt and sugar as well.



Done with the sambal and we poured it down on to a clean bowl.



While waiting for the rice to be cooked, we get to try making our own teh tarik.



In order to make the teh tarik to be more foamy.... there's a special ingredient. Which I will not disclose it in my blog post.



Condensed milk added to sweeten the tea but I prefer less sweet or in Malay language it's 'kurang manis'.



There I go… showing off my tea pulling skill. The difficult part is try to avoid the tea splashing out from the cup, it was boiling hot!



So here's the outcome from the tea pulling, my official teh tarik. Not bad right? Macam yes hor!



So after the all the elements for the nasi lemak done, it was time to assemble a plate of heartily made nasi lemak and together with the teh tarik which we did earlier. It was excellent! The sambal was not too sweet but spicy, the rice was fragrant, the anchovies were crispy and the teh tarik was really kurang manis leh! Achievement unlocked! :D

While I was waiting for the nasi lemak workshop to start, I was given a quick course on latte art.

The latte art making was so simple that event a 5 years old kid can do it.

It's not the kind of latte art where it requires pouring steamed milk into a shot of espresso but instead it's decorating it into various shapes.

What do you think? I think its pretty good and most important, it's done on a first try.

I witnessed a young boy making his own pizza for the first time.

Mark my words, this young boy's pizza is way better than a lot of pizza chain out there.
The crust was thin and crispy and the ingredients were really fresh. It's simply delicious!



The objective of GTC cooking workshop is to make every Malaysian proud of their food culture and at the same time teach them the step by step process on how to do it. A profound interest in the local cuisine by the public is essential to ensure a better future Malaysian gastronomy.

At the cafe, I was able to try out their best seller dishes, the eggs benedict and mushroom soup.

GTC cooking workshop caters customers as young as 5 years old. For the junior cooking classes, “little chef” program, they have pizza and muffin baking classes, hot chocolate art workshop, and so on. For the senior cooking program, they also have dishes like Nasi Lemak, Nyonya Curry Chicken, Curry Puff Making, Teh Tarik and many more. GTC is not only a place suitable for kids and adult, but also pet-friendly.

The workshop booking is very easy. Just visit www.mybatik.com, pick-up your desired workshop, mark the date and time, pay, and your booking is confirmed. The fee for the entire workshop is as low as RM47.70 per person. For the corporate team building, family outing, and school field trip, group booking special discount rate is available. Kindly e-mail your booking to manager@tmsart.com.my.

Green Tomato Cafe
Yayasan Seni, 333 Persiaran Ritchie,
Off Jalan Ritchie, 55000
Kuala Lumpur

Phone: +60 12-257 9775

Opens everyday from 8am to 5pm

.: Peace Out :.