Community Dinner: Nasi Lemak (First Seating)

May's Community Dinner is an icon of morning meals in Southeast Asia. Considered the national dish of Malaysia and enjoyed by Malay populations in nearby Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand, nasi lemak is a banana leaf-wrapped package of assorted goodies in a diverse palette of colors and textures: fragrant steamed rice, fried anchovies, salty peanuts, perfectly boiled egg, cooling cucumber, and a spicy, aromatic sambal paste packing a punch of flavor. A portion of richly spiced beef rendang will be an extra flourish of flavor to the standard nasi lemak medley. Linda, our resident Southeast Asian cuisine instructor, chose to cook this meal as an introduction to the flavors she holds close to her heart. San Francisco doesn't offer too many opportunities to eat Malaysian fare. Cooking for a large crowd in our Community Dinner is just one of the ways she's bringing these flavors to diners who are unfamiliar with Malaysian cuisine.

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Nasi Lemak: Coconut Rice, Sambal, Egg, Anchovies, Peanuts, Cucumber, and Beef Rendang

*This meal contains egg, shellfish, seafood and peanuts. If you have any allergies, please let us know at info@18reasons.org. We are cooking in a large batch and may not be able to accommodate every request.

**Interested in learning to cook this meal? Linda will teach a class on Nasi Lemak on June 2nd. Click here to join!

Linda Tay Esposito is teaching chef whose food represents a tribute and a commitment to the authenticity of the cuisines of the Pacific Rim.  For the last 15 years, Linda has shared her passion and knowledge of South East Asian cuisine in the Bay Area and her work had been featured in KQED Bay Area Bites, the New York Times, etc. Linda taught at the The Cooking School at Cavallo Point and at Sur La Table Cooking School, and was a lead chef at Parties That Cook where she taught global cuisines in a team building setting. She started her teaching career at Whole Foods Market. Most recently she was the head of operations and chef at Bay Area's artisan tofu maker, Hodo. She currently leads the development of La Cocina’s municipal marketplace – using food as a creative approach to economic development by offering affordable, healthy food options and safe spaces while providing assessable business opportunities for low income, immigrant, women food entrepreneurs. She writes a food blog at www.flavorexplosions.com and you can follow her on Instagram @flavor_explosions