Nasi Berlauk Malam, Friday evenings at Aperture Cafe, TTDI

September 20, 2025

Nasi Berlauk Malam, Aperture Cafe, TTDI 

On the upper floor of a shoplot in TTDI, near the big mosque, Aperture passes as another café with an eclectic mix of café food and Thai food – they claim their pad thai is to die for, although I’ve never tried it.

During the difficult COVID-19 years, when many eateries folded amid stories of ruin, dashed ambition and broken dreams, what sustained them, oddly enough, was their Taiwanese style pineapple tarts – the type that’s rectangular with pineapple filling inside, with individual paper wrappers. They sold numbers of these with plenty of zeros at the end on the takeout phenomenon that sprang to life during the doom and gloom of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

The pineapple tarts continue to be best sellers and one of the café’s signature offerings, with Chinese New Year and Hari Raya seeing so many orders the café closes for days to fulfill the backlog of orders. 

The secret is the butter and the type of sugar they use, says Razali, the coy co-owner, chef, marketing and social media manager and all time big personality.  Besides running Aperture, he holds a full-time job which involves selling butter (no surprise there!) and engages happily with customers in English blended seamlessly with Kelantanese Malay.

It was his love of his native state cuisine – and requests from longtime friends and customers, that saw him experiment with offering Nasi Berlauk Kelantan on Friday evenings. What started as a little  experiment has been running now for about 3-4 months.

There’s nothing in the regular menu to suggest the Friday evening special – even the type of cuisine is quite different, yet if you happen to be in the vicinity on Friday around 6pm, a stand-up signboard says: Nasi Berlauk Malam, Setiap Jumaat, 6.00pm – 10pm. Atau sehinga habis lauk” meaning:

“Evening Mixed Rice, every Friday, 6-10pm, or till ingredients run out”.

It's mercifually cool within after climbing the flight of stairs. The décor is rather eclectic – original artworks from local and Indonesian artists hang on the walls, wooden flooring, tables and chairs with a central polished cut-wood tabletop, and a bar area with a stall set up in front.  The stall has several dishes arrayed on it – in effect, it really is like a roadside or coffee shop Malay stall set up inside the café.

What’s on offer depends on his mood, Razali says, although one can count on Kelantan-style nasi kerabu, rice and dishes such as ayam or ikan percik, and sometimes, Kelantan- style nasi dagang with ikan tongkol.

Amid the bowls of curries and meats, there are a few not-easily recognized Kelantan local specialties such as the deep fried, salted ikan bekok, which Razali says is a fish that lives in the brackish water of the ‘kuala’ where fresh-river water meets the sea, and which he claims, without blinking, is the best fish you’ll ever eat.

(In Kelantan, ikan bekok refers to the gelama fish, a type of Croaker or Jewfish, popular with coastal communities, and prepared in various ways – steamed, fried, salted, or added to soups and curries)

There’s also solok lada,  which is green chili split and filled with a mixture of grated young coconut, minced fish and other ingredients, as well as a few other local specialties like the pickled sprouted garlic.

The food you order is put into a folded wax-paper envelope with banana leaf, wrapped and tied with rubber-band – even if you’re eating on premises, true to the takeaway stall style you would encounter in a local market.

The nasi kerabu and nasi dagang are both very good, with a mixture of kuah and local ingredients, not overly generous in the way that city folk are spoilt to expect, but only with the requisite ingredients to complete the flavour, in effect, transporting you to the experience of a meal by the roadside, by the rushing sea. 

It really does feel that authentic.  It’s about quality over quantity – the quality of the gravy, the freshness of the ingredients, the style of preparation, and the pride in the dish, as Razali will tell you without a hint of self-consciousness. (The deep-fried ikan bekok is superb, by the way)

It’s a simple meal, with prices more in line with a street setting than a café, yet this Friday offering has gained a reputation among locals in the know, who hanker after a taste of the kampung in the city. It can get quite busy on Friday evenings.

You can have your cake and eat it too, because the dessert choices run into café offerings – crème brulee, brownies with ice cream, semolina cake, matcha and pineapple tarts, claimed to be the ‘best in the world’ by Razali – perhaps it’s just his vocabulary, since he uses the term so much.

Razali says he started the Friday evening Nasi Berlauk because of his love of cooking, and his pride in the native cuisine. He’s certainly proud of his cooking, seeking feedback from customers and explaining the preparation and dishes to anyone who asks.  

If you're a first-timer, with any luck, Razali might even let you sample the "best in the world" pineapple tarts.

Nasi Berlauk Malam, 6-10pm, Fridays

Aperture Café, 12 A, First floor, Lorong Datuk Sulaiman 1, TTDI.