The Heavenly Food We Called “Nasi Bungkus”

Hello my dear friends. Have you ever heard of Nasi Bungkus? Or, do you have your own version of Nasi Bungkus in your place? In Indonesia, one of the most famous Nasi Bungkus is from Padang. Usually, we can find it in Padang’s restaurant. They have few famous sisters such as Kapau’s restaurant. There’re only slight difference in it. Of course, in my city we have our own. No matter how famous Nasi Bungkus Padang were, there’re some die hard fan of our region’s nasi bungkus. Its Nasi Bungkus Mandailing. Have you ever heard of that? People outside of my province might find it very unfamiliar. Thats because its really not common. Its not as famous as nasi bungkus padang. Even for people that living in my province, some of them might not even know what is that. Few weeks ago, my friends just came to my house to plag and i bought them Nasi Bungkus Mandailing and they’re surprised at how different it was compared to Nasi Bungkus Padang. Maybe because we’re living in this province and city, our bud taste clicked more with Nasi Bungkus Mandailing and all of my friends told me that they love it so much. Even asked where i bought it and they wang to buy it for themselves too.

The Nasi Bungkus Mandailing that i choose to buy was from Rumah Makan Ayah, or Ayah’s Restaurants. In english, ayah means father. Funnily, this is the restaurant that my father introduced to me. So, i think its kinda fated, right? I saw my father bought it for himself and just when he open the “bungkus”, the delicious smell spread through the room. It makes you desire it just by the smell of it. I dont know if the taste is up to everyone’s standard, but i am quite confident that the smell will catch everyone’s attention.

This is the close up picture from nasi bungkus that i bought. We have tons of variant of side dish in there. Basically, its the same as the one in other restaurants, especially in Padang’s restaurants. Its just the way they cook it and their spices that makes the slight differences. The side dish that i choose to have is omelette egg. I dont really go crazy over chicken and fish while i am a beef hater. For nasi bungkus, my go to side dish would be omelette egg or boiled egg. Nasi bungkus usually already have such a heavy sauces and al so i want to have an easy to consume side dish. Egg is the best way for me.

This time, i choose omelette egg rather than boiled egg. I dont know but i kinda feel i want to reminisce my childhood memories at the time. When i was young, i ate nasi bungkus with omelette egg for almost everyday. Its what my cousins always gave to me when i live in their house for a short while. This is the first time i ate omelette egg from Ayah’s Restaurant though, usually my dad always bought chicken or fish for us. This time, i bought it myself so the order choice is really up to me. What i like about them is that they have a clear and yellow looking omelette egg, its also still taste soft. In many other restaurant, they made it brownish and crispy. I dont really like crispy omelette egg.

This is the other side dish that automatically came with the nasi bungkus. It has cassava leaves, jengkol, gori, and sambal. I dont even know how to explain some of the food there in english. But the combination of all of those are so heavenly.

The prices of Nasi Bungkus with omelette egg as the side dish are 12.000 idr. Its less than $1 and i bet it can fill up the stomach of two people. I get why nasi bungkus will always be popular and considered as on of our comfort food.