Teacher, let’s make it!

31 May 2026

Angeline Koh

First try at making Nasi Ulam

I had been craving for Nasi Ulam for the past few days. I was planning to make my way to Jalan Tua Kong to tapao (takeaway) some for lunch this weekend when my helper, Pat said: “Teacher, let’s make it!” It took me two days to find out how to make it. I was delighted to find YouTube tutorials and most of the ingredients at the wet market across the road.

Nasi Ulam (Rice Salad) is a hard-to-find, tedious to make Peranakan cuisine. Malaysia and Indonesia also have their versions of it. Nasi Ulam is a fresh, super delicious, healthy vegetable, herb and rice salad. When it comes to food, “healthy” and “delicious” are two words that don’t always go together. But this dish is! I won’t attempt to describe it. This little Nonya is drooling just thinking about it. I had two bowls of it.

Here’s are the ingredients and the steps. I’ve included the video tutorial I found on YouTube below.

The Ingredients

I’ve listed the names of the ingredients in Peranakan (Malay), followed by the English and Filipino names

Rice (basmati or jasmine)
Cook and cool down

Fried items (4!) – fry separately

Kerisik (toasted grated coconut, toasted latik)
Fish (use something firm like batang, mackeral)
Haybee (dried shrimp, hibe)
Ikan bilis (white bait, dilis)

Fresh items (12!) – finely sliced

Bunga kantan (torch ginger flower, karmia)
Daun limau perut (kaffir lime leaf, kabuyaw/kulubot)
Serai (lemongrass, tanglad)
Lengkuas (galanggal, langkawas/gisól, a kind of ginger root)
Kunyit (fresh turmeric root, luyang dilaw)
Bawang merah (shallots, small red onions, sibuyas)
Daun kadok, serih (wild betel leaf, buho/buyo)
Daun kesom (laksa leaf, polygonum leaf, Vietnamese mint leaf, rau ram)
Daun kunyit (turmeric leaf, yellow ginger leaf, luyang dilaw)
Daun pudina (mint leaves, herba buena)
Kachang botol (winged bean, sigarilyas)
Kachang panjang (long beans, sitaw)

The Steps

The vegetables and herbs should be taken fresh and raw

Cook your rice the night before or leave it to cool before adding your veggies and herbs.
Mix the fried items first to allow the rice to soak up the flavours and saltiness from the fried items.
Mix in the veggies and herbs.
Season with limau kasturi (calamansi) juice and fish sauce if you prefer it more salty.