Hi everyone!

Last night before heading to bed I spotted @tonyr 's post about #dailysketch and I decided to give it a try because I promised that I will try to do so when I read his weekly challenges earlier.

And the funny thing is that I misread his post thinking we have to post up the sketch within 20 minutes after he posted, and when I saw his post it was already 12 minutes passed!

Still in misunderstanding mode I scrambled to find my old sketch book (which I found recently during cleaning up my room) and get pencils to start sketching. To my horror, that took me 5 minutes to find a proper 2B and HB pencil. haha.

Thinking I am running out of time, I paused for a while thinking what food that is not usual that could represent it uniqueness?

And almost a no-brainer, I started sketching the staple food for most Malaysians, the _Nasi Lemak

The first one I did was the base, every food will need a base, and to me, the banana leaf was it. It actually gives the extra "fresh green" fragrances to the rice and the ingredients when it is wrapped hot. It also serves as an oil proof base, preventing the moist sipped out into the outer wrapping paper. During the old days, they were just news papers (for the outer wrapping)

Next, it is the main Asian staple food, and Malaysia was not excluded. People tend to eat rice in the morning especially for labourers as they needed the energy. Bread was not common during the old days, and rice was easier to obtain.

And this rice is not a common rice. It is actually cooked with coconut milk (or these days, coconut oil) and a tad of salt. This gives the rice that extra umph of flavour and fragrance that brings out the appetite.

The next most common dish inside the nasi lemak you can find is hard boiled eggs. During the old days it was a whole egg, but these days you only get half of it or even just a quarter of it as the value of ringgit drops due to inflation.

the hard boiled eggs serves as part of the protein in the "Malaysian balanced meal" in the nasi lemak

The next thing that sits well at the corner (sometimes at the top of the rice) is the Sambal . This is a chili paste made of coarsely grinned chili (fresh and dried) with sugar and oil, making it both spicy and sweet. Depending on the choice of chili the cook chooses, you will know the level of spiciness it could become.

Previously above I DID mention that the egg was part of the protein contribution, yes? Well the next one will be the anchovies. These are usually deep fried and sometimes they are laced with sugar.
While writing this I also remembered because I was rushing to draw it, I left the peanuts behind, which also serves as part of the "balance" of the meal.

When I come to the point that I was about to finish, I realised that I did not have an eraser with me. So I used the old fashion style where I learned in school:

use the finger

It was good that I remembered this method, and I was using a pencil, so this speeds up thank to look for an eraser.

Every meal needs a balance. You have carbs, proteins, and you will need so vegetables too! And the nasi lemak usually comes with some slices of cucumber, which I have added on the left side.
I also added the darker shade for the base to portray that it is the banana leaf.

I also realised that the base looked rough, so I decided to use blend it again with the good old no eraser technique, to make it look smoother.

I had to do it quick as I was running out of time (thinking I had to upload it before @tonyr 's time lapsed! LOL

So there you go, my super quick sketch under 15 minutes and I added another base to represent the paper under the banana leaf before quickly uploaded to @tonyr's challenged site. You can read it with the link below.

https://steemit.com/dailysketch/@tonyr/dailysketch-todays-theme-and-winner-from-yesterday-daily-sbd-prize-to-be-won

Then much later when I saw his reply that "you still have 23 hours" on another commenter I went to re-read his post! It was not 20 minutes after his post, it is finishing the entire sketch within 20 minutes!

Silly me, I know.

Well never the less, I hope you have enjoyed reading this post as much as I have enjoyed (silly-ly) preparing it.

Thank you for your time

Please click on the logo to read why I have this project of 1000 SBD at the first place.

ps: currently powering up as SDB is a little weak at the moment.