Something About Laksa

Are you developing or adapting a correct Laksa?

   Sarawak Laksa

By ChefSarawak@NZChefSi

I probably watched this Australian cooking competition show two years ago, there was a contestant showed up with a dish called laksa, and the judge told her that her dish was not a laksa.

Please read the summary of the following types of laksa and continue on reading my article, then you can decide if your region or country is suitable for you to develop a laksa, or if my information and explanation can help you to develop a correct laksa for your region or country.

Summary table

The general differences between curry laksa, asam laksa and Sarawak laksa are as follows:

Curry laksa	Asam laksa	Sarawak laksa
Coconut milk is used	No coconut milk used	Coconut milk is used
Curry-like soup (includes curry as one of its ingredients)	Fish paste soup, tastes sour due to tamarind (asam)	Red curry-like soup (does not use curry)
Except for bean sprouts, no other vegetable is used	Pineapple, shredded cucumber, raw onions may be used	Except for bean sprouts and fresh coriander as garnish, no other vegetable is used.
Bean curd puff is used	No bean curd puff used	No bean curd puff used
Served with thick or thin rice vermicelli (usually thick). Occasionally served with yellow mee.	Served with thick or thin rice vermicelli (usually thick)	Served with thin rice vermicelli only
Hard-boiled egg may be added	No hard-boiled egg added	Sliced omelette is used
Slices of fish cake and either prawns or chicken are used	Fish, usually kembung, is used	Whole prawns and serrated chickens are used
Variants ·         Laksa lemak ·         Katong laksa ·         Nyonya laksa ·         Johor laksa	Variants ·         Asam Laksa ·         Penang laksa	Variants (none)

Picture (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laksa): Summary table of types of laksa

After crouching in a Chinese restaurant for two months mainly serving different kinds of noodle soup, I gathered more knowledge about Chinese people eating habits and customs, it gave me new insights about the laksa origins.

If you read the history of laksa you would learn that it is a kind of fusion food between Chinese earlier settlers settled in S. E. Asian nations, most of these countries are actually multi-racial oriented with hidden Chinese or Chinese mixed blood with the local ethnic races or indigenous people who acted like Jews (good businessmen) in monitoring the economic backbones of most populated coastal areas.

Laksa probably is one of the most popular regional fusion dishes has developed in S. E. Asian countries between Chinese earlier settlers with the local ethnic races and the indigenous people,  and it has lasted for decades and finally being popularly accepted in conditions that it has commercial value, its fusion must stay in typically a neutral ground to please the taste buds of locals thus it must consist a few favorite ingredients of each race and thus it could be accepted by multi-racial population or even foreigners, and the ingredients must be easily availed locally, its ingredients must be religiously accepted by the two of the major religions' followers, the Muslim and Hindu,  it must be cheap enough so that everyone could afford to buy and eat it, its taste must be unique but tasty and unforgettable enough that after the locals eating it, they would keep returning to it and introduce it to their friends and visitors, it must consist a secret formulae carried only by a few families in a region to provoke public curiosity. Sarawak laksa's popularity has endured for decades and it even could please celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s taste buds and it ended up being listed as his top 10 wish list for his food market in NYC.

Picture: Celebrity chef Anthi=ony Bourdain eating Sarawak Laksa in Kuching, Sarawak

Why I mentioned Chinese earlier settlers played an important part in developing this fusion dish?

Let’s begin to understand the eating habit of earlier S.E. Asian indigenous people and ethnic races. In the earlier days, they used their hands to eat their meals, and their three meals were usually rice or for ethnic Indian, they would eat roti canai, usually, they would use the banana leaf to serve their meal. Laksa needs a bowl to hold its bisque-like thicker consistent soup or tom yang thinner and clearer-kind of soup with a choice of rice or wheat noodle, and Chinese was the one who brought noodle to S.E. Asia. Thus, even up to these days, different noodles eaten by these ethnic races and ingenious people are either different types of Chinese wheat or rice noodles or the adapted version of Chinese noodles.

With a soup and noodle, you need to use a spoon and a pair of chopstick or fork. A bowl filled with soup and noodle has been more than a thousand-year eating style in China, Japan, and Korea, but there were hardly any Japanese or Korean settlers migrated to this region other than Chinese and Indian, the world two largest populations. 

Chinese are like Jews, they are good businessmen, from the economic booming situation now in China, you would understand what I am talking about here. If the earlier Chinese hawkers who sold noodle soup wanted to make money from the local ethnic races and indigenous people, they must develop a fusion dish to please everyone’s taste buds, this fusion dish could also help to extend friendship between the multi-races. 

In S.E. Asia, small business was usually engaged in a coffee shop (Kopitiam for Malaysian, Brunei, and Singapore). Imagine that Muslims wouldn’t sit together with Chinese who eat pork, even if they sat together and ate differently, their minds would release some negative energy against each other, but if a Chinese businessman needed to deal a business successfully with an Indian and a Malay at the same time, the best place would be a kopitiam where they could enjoy laksa together, imagine that if the laksa and coffee was good, it could provoke good mood and friendship.

So how this ethnic Chinese developed their laksa to please everyone? 

The backbone of laksa is just like Chinese noodle soup, the following listing is the 5 components of an original Chinese noodle soup serving style:

1. A Meat based soup (Usually pork or chicken bones simmered with daikon or pickled mustard)
2. A choice of noodle
3. Protein (Could be a few pieces of pork char siu, fish balls, dumpling/wontons or pig offal)
3. Vegetable (seasonal vegetable like bak choy)
4. Garnishing (spring onion or cilantro) 
5. A sauce (soy sauce). Of course, this noodle soup would be served with a bowl, chop stick and a spoon.

But do you think Malaysian or Singaporean ethnic Indian, Malay or indigenous people and even other races from other S.E. Asian regions who grew up with protein and vegetable dishes mainly spiced up richly by the local tropical or equatorial herbs and spices would like to eat Chinese food? These people were so used to the rich and spicy food, they wouldn’t like Southern Chinese basically spice-less plain food (Earlier Chinese settlers were mainly from China coastal region or Southern coastal region they don't use spices and green herbs so much in their daily meals). Chinese food would be too plain for them. Yet Chinese knew that these native people loved noodles, so they finally figured out a way to develop a recipe called laksa.

Laksa is a fusion and derivative of Chinese noodle soup (*retained to please Chinese) with ethnic races and indigenous people's favorite spicy food (*adapted to please local ethnic races and indigenous people), it is considered as a diplomatic cuisine to extend friendship between each different race and religious believers. 

The modification of laksa components but it still strictly followed Chinese noodle soup serving style is listed as followed: 

1. The meat base soup would use chicken bones, fish, belacan or prawn or combination as the protein (*modified to please Muslim and Hindu, the soup base either is bisque-like or Thai Tom Yang -like), there would be no daikon or mustard pickled but it would be prepared from locally availed herbs and spices (*Adapted or regionalized to please local ethnic races and indigenous people, herbs and spices were simmered in oil as laksa sambal before prepared as laska stock)
2.  Used one kind of noodle or two kinds of noodle for Penang curry mee (these cooks were smart enough to know what kind of noodle was/were local favorite *Used it to please everyone, as most Asian like noodles)
3. Protein used to place on top of noodle (Sarawak laksa would use shredded chicken, julienne omelet, and prawns, *modified for religious reason and omelet could please westerners and children, some laksa would use crispy tofu, this is a typical Chinese influence)
4. The vegetable/fruit or a combination of vegetable and fruits was used. Usually, the most commonly ate bean sprout, cucumber, pineapple or onion  was/were added (*used cheapest vegetable/ vegetable & fruit to cut food's cost price! Remember Chinese businessmen are very good in calculating!)
5. Garnishing would be using availed local herbs like Vietnamese mint, basil or cilantro/Sarawak laksa used baby cilantro 
6. The sauce which was created to flavor the blanched prawn (*another local spicy belacan concocted sauce integrated here with calamansi to get rid seafood peculiar smell and to balance the taste of the spicy hot laksa soup)

Why laksa could last until today, if you eat it then you will know it consisted all the 5 basic tastes required in culinary skills application but done subtly: Sweetness (From coconut, pineapple, tamarind), sourness (From tamarind, calamansi), umami (From belacan, nuts, chicken), bitterness (from spices and herbs), saltiness (from salt), besides that it consisted other after-taste sensation (from chilies, mint, cardamom)

The variety of ingredients used in laksa also contributed to different textures that gave sensation or mouth feel during chewing and eating.  

I hope after you read this article, you won’t waste your time to adapt a laksa that doesn't give dinners any mouth feel and kick in their taste buds, remember my brief explanation of this laksa’s origin and history, it was a derivative fusion Chinese’s protein and vegetable soup noodle with S.E. Asian nation’s herbs, spices and local cheapest fruits and vegetable, it showed concern to two main religions Muslim and Hindus populated among them and with ethnic Chinese cooks who created it for economic purpose and friendships between each ethnic race, indigenous people, and even foreigners.

It is cheaper, more suitable and feasible for certain countries’ regions that situated along tropical and equatorial zones to develop/adapt their own version of laksa than temperate zone western countries, as herbs, spices, protein ingredients, vegetable and including the “similar laksa creator” – the ethnic Chinese  or mixed ethnic Chinese live among them.