PappaRich, Sydney Airport

When I visit Sydney, I mostly seek out southeast asian food, as it is just so much better in Sydney than in San Francisco.  I eat a lot of thai food there, because even though we have plenty of Thai restaurants in San Francisco, they just don't have the same heat and complex spicing, and don't have the access to the same fresh ingredients that they have in Australia.  I also go all in on Malaysian food, as it is fairly rare in San Francisco, and its a relatively new discovery for me (when I visited nearby Singapore right before the pandemic).  

PappaRich is a chain of Malaysian restaurants with locations around Australia. 

"Our delicately crafted dishes never fail to deliver bursts of flavour and colour because we use only an authentic mix of herbs, spices and fresh produce, cooked according to traditional recipes. From the fiery sambal of the Nasi Lemak to the silky smooth Curry Laksa broth, from the savoury Satay to the unforgettable Char Koay Teow, our food reflects the balance and harmony of the different cultures in Malaysia that have combined to give us the distinctive, unique taste of Malaysian cuisine.

Here at PappaRich, we aim to deliver authentic and quality Malaysian food to all our customers, and to be a brand that is genuinely Malaysian."

I nearly visited a few times in Sydney, but I always opted for non-chain establishments instead, including Ho Jiak, which I reviewed last week and highly recommend.  But they just opened a location in the Sydney airport.  I saw it when I was there in November as they were doing a popup with Kurimu, where I got an incredible filled croissant, but I didn't get anything from PappaRich itself that visit.  This time, I decided to swing by both for one last chance to have my fill of Malaysian food, AND snag another pastry from Kurimu.  My motivation was twofold: well, I wanted the goodies, but also, to have a backup plan to handle United's generally abysmal catering.

Ordering was quick and easy at the register.

Nasi Lemak Bungkus. 蕉叶椰浆饭.

Rather than a hot meal that would not be possible to heat up or eat easily on the plane, and would take up a lot of space, I went for a grab-n-go item, the Nasi Lemak Bungkus, that were pre-made and ready to grab right there at the counter.  It was lightly warm, but certainly not hot, and I thought would be reasonably tasty cold later.  

It was a very practical choice, well packaged and as compact as possible, while still being a complete and filling meal.  It weighed far more than it looked like it would, and was considerably bigger than something like a Japanese onigiri, even if it looked like one in this close up photo.

Nasi Lemak Bungkus. 蕉叶椰浆饭. $9.90.

"A traditional style wrapped in a banana leaf. It contains coconut infused rice, served with egg, sambal chili, anchovies, and peanuts."

"Nasi Lemak rice, fried peanuts, fried anchovies, hard-boiled egg, cucumber and sambal wrapped in banana leaf."

It may not have been assembled with much care, e.g. fast food style, and it certainly didn't win any beauty awards, but once I removed the plastic and paper wrapper, I was pretty thrilled and happy to dig in.

First, the dominant element, the coconut rice, the basis for any nasi lemak.  An extremely hefty amount of rice.  A giant mound really.  It was soft, mushy, rich from coconut milk.  It wasn't particularly fragrant, nor well seasoned, or frankly even all that well cooked, but, it was a decent base.

The rice was just a vehicle for the rest for me anyway.  The other goodies were exactly what I was hoping for.  Skin-on fried whole peanuts for crunch and nutty flavor.  Plenty of fried anchovies that added so much savoriness and amped up the salt level.  Decent amount of sambal that delivered a bit of heat and lots of flavor complexity.  A few pieces of sliced cucumber for freshness.  65% of a hard boiled egg (it was definitely more than half ... I couldn't tell if this was intentional, e.g. it was not a full egg because they wanted it to have a flat side and fit on well, or if it was supposed to be a half, and they just didn't put any precision into slicing it, and someone else got one with a tiny egg wedge?).  Basically, it was everything you'd expect from nasi lemak, but made into a ball/wrap (bungkus).  Reasonable quality and freshness on everything.

I did end up enjoying a hunk on my flight cold, put the rest on ice for the rest of my flight, and heated it up when I got home that night to properly enjoy it warm.  It was actually told fine both ways.  I loved the textures (so much crunch!) and the pungent flavors.  It was a great supplementary part of a meal on my flight, and a nice easy jetlag confused last bite of Sydney when I got home.  I'll snag one again next time I'm flying out of Sydney, but I wouldn't actually seek this out in other circumstances - it was good, and very handy, but there are better options in the non-airport world.  ***+.