Do it yourself…

My favourite Sarawak laksa in town is this one here and there are few others around that I quite like but if I am not wrong, the most popular one in town is this one here though I’m not all that crazy about it. The one here…

…used to be the best in town but for some reason or other, its popularity has been on the decline.

During those days when people were dropping by here by the droves, the guy at the stall was not very friendly, not in the least, to put in mildly and it was for that very reason that I did not bother to go there and eat. I, for one, strongly believe that no matter how good you may be, you should treat people with respect…at all times, never mind who they may be and if you do not have the simple decency to be nice to people, I can jolly well do without what you have to offer, regardless how nice it may be.

I parked my car at the far end of the block and even from all the way there, I could smell the laksa already. Wow!!! It must be really good, I thought to myself. Well, if you’re wondering why I went back there, it was because somebody said that the Sarawak laksa here would not be as rich as those elsewhere, meaning that it would not be so lemak with a lot of santan (coconut milk) added and thus, that would make it more authentic, more like the ones found in Kuching…and since Melissa said that she wanted that for brunch, there we were…

…that day to give it another try. I ordered the special and he told me quite rudely that there wasn’t anymore. Good grief!!! It certainly is true that a leopard cannot change its spots. He could have used a more pleasant tone than that. Tsk! Tsk! I quickly ordered the small for the three of us and took my seat…for fear of another round of shelling.

It certainly looked like he still had his fair share of the laksa business as there were quite a number of people around – not as many as before but there certainly were a fair number of customers. Soon, the our orders arrived (RM4.00)…

…and without further ado, we dived in!

Was it any good? For one thing, it was extremely salty…

…and long after we had left the place, I could still feel the lingering msg taste in my mouth. Even the nice sambal belacan (dried fermented prawn paste chili dip) that came with it…

…could not save the day and if you’re guessing that I would not be heading back there again, you are absolutely right.

Now, after that somewhat disappointing outing, I thought I would just do it myself and cook my own as I still had the two packets of laksa paste that my friend, Philip, in the US, gave me when he came back home earlier this year. I’ve tried the Hj Manan’s laksa paste before and I did not think it was really great though my cousin in Kuching loved it a lot…so I decided to try the other one instead …

Of course, I had to go to the market in the morning to buy the prawns, peel and de-vein them and I saved the heads and the shells to boil and keep the stock. I also boiled the prawns, tails still intact, and drained…

…and used the water for stock.

I emptied the whole packet of laksa paste into the stock and brought it to boil…

…before adding the santan (coconut milk) and some belacan and a cube of ikan bilis (dried anchovies) stock to boost up the taste a little bit.

It was a Friday so I did not buy any chicken and I bought some made-in-Singapore fish cakes instead…

…and sliced them thinly. Usually, you would not find tofu pok (fried bean curd) in Sarawak laksa, unlike the curry mee in the peninsula, but Melissa loves those so I had to buy some and sliced the cubes thinly as well.

Melissa helped fry some omelette and cut that into fine strips…

…and I blanched some taugeh (bean sprouts) and chopped some daun sup (Chinese celery)…

…and of course, we had to get ready the bihun, soaked in hot water to soften and drained…

To serve, all that one would have to do is to put the bihun in a bowl, add all the condiments and pour the soup or broth over all of that…

…and eat. Of course, there simply MUST be some sambal belacan to go with this so my missus pounded some of that much coveted stuff.

So, was it any good?

I’m afraid that I would have to say that though it tasted very nice, somehow it lacked the nice fragrance and taste of the authentic Sarawak or Kuching laksa plus it was not spicy at all.

Of course, we enjoyed the fruit of our labour that day but no prize for guessing whether or not I would be buying this particular brand of laksa paste again…