Laksa Penang

Laksa

Laksa is a popular spicy noodle soup from Peranakan culture also known as Baba and Nyonya, which is a merger of Chinese and Malay elements found in Malaysia and Singapore.

Types of laksa

The term "laksa" is used generally to describe two different basic types of noodle soup dishes: curry laksa and assam laksa. Curry laksa is a coconut curry soup with noodles, while assam laksa is a sour fish soup with noodles. Usually, thick rice noodles also known as laksa noodles are preferred, although thin rice vermicelli (bee hoon or mee hoon) is also common and some variants use other types.


Curry Laksa

Curry laksa (in many places referred to simply as “laksa”) is a coconut-based curry soup. The main ingredients for most versions of curry laksa include tofu puffs, fish sticks, shrimp and cockles. Some vendors may sell chicken laksa which uses chicken instead of shrimp. Cockles are usually very commonly used in laksa and most vendors would add them into laksa unless customers request not to have cockles for hygiene reasons. Laksa is commonly served with a spoonful of sambal chilli paste and is traditionally garnished with Vietnamese coriander, or laksa leaf, which is known in Malay as daun kesum.

This is usually known as "Curry mee" in Penang rather than curry laksa, due to the different kind of noodles used (yellow mee or bee hoon, as opposed to the thick white laksa noodles). Curry Mee in Penang is special for its jelly like pork blood, a delicacy to the Malaysian Chinese community. Two of the well known places to try curry mee is at Lorong Seratus Tahun and Chulia Street.[citation needed]
The name "Curry laksa" is more commonly used in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. With the popularity of laksa in Singapore and Malaysia, laksa yong tau foo , lobster laksa, and even plain laksa, with just noodles and gravy.

Laksa is extremely popular in Australia, especially in the Chinatown districts of the capital cities.[citation needed] Special deals, such as "Laksa Thursday"[citation needed] encourage many local business workers to frequent the Asian cafes to dine on Laksa and other noodle based soups.


Assam laksa

Assam laksa is a sour fish-based soup. Asam (or asam jawa) is the Malay word for tamarind, which is commonly used to give the stock its sour flavor. It is also common to use "asam keping" also known as "asam gelugor", dried slices of tamarind fruit, for added sourness. Modern Malay spelling is asam, though the spelling assam is still frequently used.

The main ingredients for assam laksa include shredded fish, normally kembung fish or mackerel, and finely sliced vegetables including cucumber, onions, red chillis, pineapple, lettuce, common mint, "daun kesum" (Vietnamese mint or laksa mint) and pink bunga kantan (ginger buds). Assam laksa is normally served with either thick rice noodles or thin rice noodles (vermicelli). And topped off with "petis udang" or "hae ko" (蝦羔), a thick sweet prawn/shrimp paste