Nasi lemak showdown: Faith Nasi Lemak vs Tian Tian Nasi Lemak

If you ask a bunch of locals to name their favourite breakfast foods, chances are at least 1 person is going to say “nasi lemak”. It’s easy to see why – tasty, fragrant coconutty rice paired with a smorgasbord of yummy sides. Not the most healthy, sure, but you gotta live a little sometimes, right?

On today’s Showdown, I’ll be pitting 2 different nasi lemak stalls within the Serangoon area against each other: Faith Nasi Lemak, Fried Beehoon/Mee, and Tian Tian Nasi Lemak. Both stalls have their unique sides, so to keep things fair, I ordered only items that I know are available at both stalls.

Faith Nasi Lemak is located at 151A Serangoon North Avenue 2, and has been there for at least 2 decades. It has the same signboard as a stall of the same name located at Redhill Market & Food Centre (the Redhill one is a blue signboard with yellow text). Upon speaking to the friendly auntie, she confirmed that both stalls were owned by the same family.

The menu and prices of each available item are listed on a bright yellow board. You can either point at your favourite items, or pick from pre-determined sets. There’s fried bee hoon and char kway teow available, as well as nasi lemak. If you get there early enough, there’s also fried noodles available, but from my experience that tends to sell out fast.

All the items available are displayed in the window, and if you go early enough, there’s also glutinous rice available. Faith Nasi Lemak starts operating extremely early at around 5.30am, and they close up shop before lunchtime. The queue comes in waves, and sometimes goes around the side of the kopitiam. The usual ingredients are present here, including my personal favourite, “red meat”, which is actually sweet and sour chicken. 

Meanwhile, Tian Tian Nasi Lemak is located a stone’s throw away, at 153A Serangoon North Ave 1. It’s part of a chain with several outlets, and is open till later in the day (although they close before dinnertime). 

Tian Tian Nasi Lemak’s fare includes the usual fried items, and they also have white bee hoon, which Faith Nasi Lemak does not. Other additional items they offer include otah and fried ikan kuning. 

Unlike Faith Nasi Lemak, there’s no clear signage for the prices at Tian Tian Nasi Lemak which is rather annoying. You have to get right up to the stall to read off a laminated piece of A4 paper. 

(And this is a personal anecdote: while the menu states there’s kway teow available, I have yet to see it in all the years I’ve been patronising this branch. Maybe I just have terrible timing.)

Comparisons

As mentioned earlier, to ensure fairness, I ordered nasi lemak from both stalls with the same ingredients: 1 chicken wing, a serving of ikan bilis with peanuts, fish fillet, fried egg and sambal. 

For Faith Nasi Lemak, the total damage came to S$4.60 for all the items listed.

For Tian Tian Nasi Lemak, it was S$5.80 – a S$1.20 price difference. Why was that so?

For starters, Tian Tian Nasi Lemak’s Set A (S$3.50), which includes a chicken wing and fried egg, only includes peanuts without the ikan bilis. Adding on ikan bilis cost an additional S$1.10, and a fish fillet was S$1.20. Faith Nasi Lemak’s Set A (S$3), on the other hand, included a fish fillet, fried egg and ikan bilis with peanuts already included. Adding on a chicken wing was S$1.60.

Round 1: The rice

Faith Nasi Lemak’s rice managed to stay separated despite spending extended time inside the takeaway container. The grains didn’t clump, and the fragrance of coconut and pandan permeated the entire mouthful. The rice was also sufficiently lemak without being overpowering.

Tian Tian Nasi Lemak, on the other hand… the rice was clumpy, and had only just enough coconut fragrance to moonlight as possibly being nasi lemak.

This round goes handily to Faith Nasi Lemak.

Round 2: Chicken wings

Faith Nasi Lemak’s style of chicken wing is closer to har cheong gai – while not as pungent as some renditions, you can detect that some was used in the marination. Unfortunately, the chicken wing at this point was already soggy, so it wasn’t crispy anymore. (They are much better when fresh out of the wok.)

Tian Tian Nasi Lemak’s chicken is a craggy-looking specimen with a much thicker batter, and still retained some of its crunchiness. It has a different flavour profile that I consider slightly more traditional and savoury than Faith Nasi Lemak’s.

For the chicken wing round, Tian Tian Nasi Lemak edges out over Faith Nasi Lemak, but it’s also worth noting that Tian Tian Nasi Lemak’s chicken wings are more expensive than Faith Nasi Lemak: It costs S$0.20 more.

Round 3: Ikan bilis

There’s nothing really standout or unique about the fried ikan bilis with peanuts at Faith Nasi Lemak, and that’s fine with me. It’s crunchy and salty and that’s all I need it to be.

Tian Tian Nasi Lemak’s rendition has less peanut in the mix, and the ikan bilis are slightly sweet and spicy. It’s also more expensive to add on as compared to Faith Nasi Lemak.

For this round, it’s more of a toss-up of personal taste preferences, and based on my own opinion, I preferred the more neutral flavour (and extra peanuts) of Faith Nasi Lemak’s version. The fact that it’s more affordable doesn’t hurt either.

For the sambal, I don’t find either better than the other – just a preference in taste. Faith Nasi Lemak has a sweeter sambal, while Tian Tian Nasi Lemak is more savoury. I found both equally appealing. 

The other ingredients like the fried eggs had no discernible differences apart from their aesthetics, but Faith Nasi Lemak’s fish fillet was the superior one in terms of having a much better texture.

Verdict 

Honestly, I could go into further detail between the two stalls, but this article has already gotten long enough and I don’t want my editor to throw a sandal at me.

For this nasi lemak showdown, my overall choice is Faith Nasi Lemak. If you like fried bee hoon though, I prefer Tian Tian Nasi Lemak’s version instead. 

While not what I would call “cheap”, Faith Nasi Lemak is more affordable in multiple aspects as compared to Tian Tian Nasi Lemak. Having patronised both stalls a good number of times over the years, Faith Nasi Lemak has been very consistent in their food as compared to Tian Tian Nasi Lemak.

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