Newton Food Centre is now home to Chef Shen Tan’s award-winning twice-steamed Nasi Lemak. Named after OG Dinks, Shen’s rescue cat who is in love with chicken drumsticks and ikan bilis, OG Lemak is Shen’s homecoming to where her culinary career began. 13 years ago, Shen ditched her corporate suit for a hawker apron with Madam Tan’s Nasi Lemak at Maxwell Food Centre. She then moved on to projects like Mod-Sin restaurant Wok&Barrel and Ujong at Raffles Hotel.
Now back at the hawker centre, OG Lemak’s twice-steamed Nasi Lemak took Shen many years to perfect, and the final recipe takes over 4 hours to cook. With 11 ingredients like onions, ginger, lemongrass, pandan leaves, coconut milk, water, salt and fenugreek, the result is a flavourful and layered Nasi, much like the Nasi Lemak of yesteryear.
