MY lunch on Chinese New Year’s Eve was impossibly colourful. It was the Yin Yang set comprising nasi ulam – half rice and half caulirice in rainbow colours presented on a woven tray, which I had ordered online and delivered from the Artisanal Bunny Kitchen.

The nasi ulam, made of basmati rice, was mostly yellow and blue, while the caulirice was coloured with purple cabbage juice. A melange of fragrant herbs such as daun kesom, limau purut, lemongrass and bunga kantan was finely julienned and topped each mound of rice. Fried tempeh, salted egg, small limes, tubs of sambal belacan (spicy and super spicy) and golden ginger sauce completed the busy tray.

I lifted a small mound of yellow and blue rice onto a plate and mixed it with the sweet, fruity ginger sauce, super spicy sambal and calamansi juice. I crushed some salted egg into it. Taken with the ulam, the rice tasted a little sweet, sour, savoury and refreshing. I did the same with the purple caulirice, which incidentally, is ideal for those on a keto diet.

“The golden ginger sauce contains enzymes that can help us digest the raw ulam better. It is made with three to four types of jamu gingers (turmeric being one of them),” said Mandy Bunny Leong, who, before the lockdown, gave cooking classes in person with focus on gut health.

“It’s healthy, tasty food made with wholesome, colourful ingredients.”

For the rainbow nasi ulam, she took inspiration from the Nyonya nasi ulam and Malay nasi kerabu, adding her own twists to them to suit vegans and vegetarians. I liked the addition of crispy fried tempeh to the rice and caulirice.

You have the option of adding side dishes to the nasi ulam, such as asam pedas ikan (RM40), minced pork belly ulam salad (RM30), sambal lychee petai (RM40), fried ikan kembong (RM28), smoked salmon slices (RM20) and pork curry (RM40). The Yin Yang set is RM95.

The asam pedas ikan tasted just like perut ikan, only with fish in it instead of fish stomach. I picked up the scents of daun kadok, kesom, bunga kantan, lemongrass and bung kantan in it. There were the expected long beans, pineapple and asam keping in the sweet, sour and spicy curry topped with mints. We had ours with ikan tongkol but I would have preferred kembong in this.

The asam pedas ikan is the next best thing to the perut ikan that Mandy used to make, but with travel curbs in effect, it’s difficult to for her to get a supply of fish stomachs from Penang.

The minced pork belly salad came with a chilli lime sambal and golden ginger sauce to be stirred into the meat and ulam mixture of lemongrass, bunga kantan, mint and daun kesom.

My next order will definitely be the sambal lychee petai, Mandy’s best-selling item since 2015. Surprisingly it was made for her expat customers. I would like to try her rainbow tempeh, studded with mixed lentils, petai and purple sweet potato, and kerabu bihun, naturally coloured pink and purple. Her collagen bone broth sells well too.

Since 2014, Mandy has taught gut health classes in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia focusing on natural healing with ulam and jamu, water kefir, milk kefir and fermented vegetables. She also gives lessons on how to make western and Chinese sausages, rainbow tempeh making and crispy Asian herbs pork roulade. Her classes are now held online.

Mandy takes orders when the mood takes her. The food is usually available at least three days a week, from Wednesday to Sunday. She posts the dates she takes orders on Facebook and Instagram. – February 20, 2021.

* Eu Hooi-Khaw has been writing about food for the longest time, covering all aspects, from restaurant reviews to cooking and recipes, as well as the healthy side of it. She has written for major newspapers and magazines, published the cookbook Fresh Ingredients, and also writes for her website hooikhawandsu.com.