McDonald’s Malaysia Is Petitioning to Make Nasi Lemak Their Official National Dish

2019-08-28 , 12:00 am

Although the words Malaysia constantly throws at food-related topics may seem like having a national dish is a given, there’s no such official dish yet.

In fact, this made me check Singapore’s, but we don’t have an official body saying what our national dish is either.

This would be the job of some government tourism agency, but it seems like McDonald’s is taking this into their own hands with a call for Nasi Lemak to be Malaysia’s official national dish.

Yeah, a fast-food restaurant of all things.

An online petition aims to get 1 million signatures by Malaysia day on 16 Sep 2019

As of writing, about 26k people have signed the petition, so 1 million seems like a long way to go. The petition is addressed to the Malaysian authorities.

The reasoning, according to the petition, is simple. Malaysia already has a National Animal, Flower and Cars. So why not food when it’s not official yet?

As for the choice of Nasi Lemak:

Nasi Lemak is our most beloved dish, embraced by all cultures and all states in Malaysia as their own. It is a simple, everyday dish that’s full of diverse flavours and textures. A true representation of Malaysia and its unity of diverse cultures.

But this isn’t the only thing McDonald’s is doing in this push for Nasi Lamek.

Or should I say… Mekdi (McD pronunciation)?

First McDonald’s outlet in Malaysia now called Mekdi

While some of us call McDonald’s ‘macs’, the Malaysians call it ‘Mekdi’. At first, I thought this was just some individual preference thing, because ‘Mekdi’ sounds a little cooler, while ‘macs’ is easier to say.

You know, like Jay and Pusha are just normal names, but add a letter behind like Jay-Z and Pusha T, suddenly you have rapper names.

Unseen is the b-boying they later break into as they accept their rapper name Mac D./ Image: McDonald’s Malaysia

Turns out that’s a Malaysian wide thing and McDonald’s Malaysia has fully embraced that local nickname, which is also done in celebration of Hari Merdeka and Malaysia Day.

Nasi Lemak on the Menu

Pushing for petitions and a change of name doesn’t bring in money. So naturally, a new menu item is on. As you would expect, it’s Nasi Lemak.

And we’re not talking about Nasi Lemak Burger. This is the real McCoy.

In addition to the fragrant coconut rice, crispy anchovies, fresh cucumbers, fried eggs and sambal, there’s also the option to add on an Ayam Goreng McD and a cup of Iced Lemon Tea.

Here’s the price:

Breakfast hours: Nasi Lemak McD set (RM5.99), served with Iced Milo.
Regular hours: Nasi Lemak McD with 1 piece of Ayam Goreng McD and an Iced Lemon Tea (RM12.99)
Regular hours: Nasi Lemak McD with 2 pieces of Ayam Goreng McD and an Iced Lemon Tea (RM15.99)

…With a diss track

Talking about rappers, I suddenly figured out the food wars between Malaysia and Singapore. It wasn’t that much a hate relationship.

We were just interpreting their diss tracks wrong the whole time, and their just waiting for a reply. Here’s their latest track:

In the video, a man (presumably Singaporean) can be seen using tissues to chope seats and cutting the queue to be in line for a “best nasi lemak Singapore”.

His female companion then pushes away one of the plates to open a more traditionally packed nasi lemak. Cue intro of Mekdi’s Nasi Lemak.

At this point I’m like OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH that’s a diss track aight.

But sorry Malaysia, it’s unlikely that there would be a diss track in reply since we seem to be playing different genres here.