The tale of nasi goreng kampung

Today's canteen service was strange.

I ordered a nasi goreng kampung. Isn't there a fixed recipe for that; I mean, every time you order it, it will turn out the same? Usually they just take my order and start frying away, but today the lady asked me whether I wanted belacan, while pointing at the sambal belacan container. I nodded, and she asked whether I wanted ikan masin (salted fish). This made me stop short. I asked her, nasi goreng kampung doesn't have salted fish in it, does it? (they also have salted fish fried rice on the menu) She said that sometimes people want salted fish. Uh.. okay then, let's put salted fish.

And then as she was frying the first ingredients, she was going to take some chilli paste to add in, and she asked me again for confirmation. Strange... Can't I just have a normal, "original" nasi goreng kampung?

I asked for nasi goreng kampung because I wanted to take some cili padi (provided on the counter, in soy sauce) to eat with it. But it turned out that the fried rice was spicy enough that I couldn't even take much chilli with it.

Okay, for one thing, this lady has never fried my dishes before. They work on rotation, and I have never ordered from this particular cook. So maybe she always does this. Another reason could be that today there are less people at the office... and one, she has time to ask me this and that on my preferences. Two, maybe there was too much salted fish left... :P

In the end, my fried rice was bursting with flavour... but a bit too salty. I forgot that the ikan bilis (anchovies) in the nasi goreng kampung would already be salty...