LEMPER UDANG

Some while ago my brother-in-law said over Sunday lunch that lately he had yet to come across a good lemper udang - one full of the spicy fried minced dried prawn. It struck me that I had not eaten one for a long while. So I set out to look for the best one (at least to me). Surprise, surprise, I found one I really like in, of all places, the canteen in the Novena church at Thompson Road.

May, my wife, and I go to the Novena on Saturdays. On that particular Saturday I had to go to the loo and went through canteen to get to it. Lo and behold, there it was, a basket full of fat lempers - in the the canteen not the loo. Here's what this delicious treat looks like.



Not only is it choked full of the spicy dried prawn, it is also streaked with the blue from the bunga telang (blue pea flower), a traditional nonya food colouring. It is good because the spicy dried prawn has just the right hot chilly taste with a tinge of sugar sweetness. The glutinous rice is tender and lemak (rich with coconut milk) but not mushy.

If you want to get it, you have to go to the canteen before 10.30 am as they disappear soon after. Trust me, several times I went after the 10 am novena, and they were gone. Now, I buy them ($1.10 each) as soon as I arrive for the 10 am novena. Yum.