Nasi Lemak at Chilli Padi

Chilli padi
Menzies Alley, Melbourne Central (map)
9663 5688


Last Thursday it was lunchtime and work had meant that I was down near Melbourne Central, a place I'm not normally around much these days now that I work down near King and Bourke. Now, what was the name again of the place I'd noted in the latest Cheap Eats Guide near Melbourne Central that specialised in nasi lemak? (Sidenote: I became a big fan last year of the nasi lemak from Norsiah's Kitchen, a great little bain marie place up near Melbourne Uni - I'd found it by literally following my nose as I'd been standing at the tram stop... antirealmadrid has blogged about Norsiah's here)

I wasn't carrying my Cheap Eats Guide on my person (fatal mistake - a gal should never leave home without it!) and my friend DJ (who has his in his office - smart boy) was out to lunch when I tried to call him, so I did the next best thing: snuck into Borders and looked it up in one of their copies. It turned out it was called Changi Village Nasi Lemak and was just across Latrobe St. Imagine, dear reader, my disappointment and dismay when I crossed Latrobe and found that CVNL has since CLOSED! Apparently a Korean restaurant will be opening in its place, which ought to please mellie no end... :)

Well dammit I wasn't about to let a small thing like a closed restaurant stop me from having nasi lemak for lunch! So I recrossed Latrobe and wandered over to Chilli Padi to see what theirs is like.

As you can see, it was very elegantly presented, and I chose to get chicken curry rather than beef rendang. Fiery sambal, nicely crunchy ikan bilis (tiny dried anchovies) and tangy achar (pickled veggies), but while the chicken was fresh it wasn't as melt-in-the-mouth as I've had in the past. Still, overall it was very tasty.

Has anyone seen Chilli padi's groovy yet slightly unusual website? It's a bit like The Sims!