Pretty good…

This sure looks pretty good for a bowl of instant Sarawak/Kuching laksa…

…you reckon? I dare say that it can put a lot of those at the shops to shame.

Well, it all started when my sister saw them selling this…

…at a supermarket near her house. She did not bother to buy, of course, the reason, I guess, is quite obvious. RM29.90 for six packets like this…

…in the box is no chicken feed.

In the meantime, she went and watched their promotional Youtube videos featuring their product here and also here and she hopped over to those online shopping websites and were horrified by the prices that they are selling them there.

Nonetheless, she could not resist the temptation to give it a try so she relented and went back to the supermarket and bought a box…

…and she gave us three packets out of the six.

The fact that there are no preservatives, no artificial colouring and no msg added and only natural herbs are used sure sounds promising and on top of all that, they are using sago vermicelli that is supposed to be superior to the regular rice versions…

…and if you get those from China, you may be put off by the cockroach smell in the noodles.

My missus went and pounded this sambal belacan (dried prawn paste)…

…to go with the laksa but no, she used the Mukah belacan that I bought not too long ago. Many will say it is not as nice as the ones from Bintulu but seeing how those are now selling at RM80.00 a kilo, I guess it is best that we settle for what is 2nd best. The lady at the wet market insisted that the Mukah ones are good enough and considering we are ordinary people, not some multi-millionaire, there is really no need to go and spend a fortune on such things.

My missus followed the instructions to get the bihun ready and was shocked to find that out of one little packet, she ended up with a whole lot of the noodles. We still have the big seawater prawns…

…that I bought sometime ago in February so she took a few to boil to get the stock for cooking the laksa broth, using the sambal and the santan (coconut milk) that came in the packet. She found it to be somewhat too salty (following the measurement specified in the instructions) so she added some more water and extra santan according to taste.

Adding the bihun to it, she topped it all with the prawns and also some sliced omelette and blanched taugeh (bean sprouts)…

…followed by a sprinkling of chopped daun sup (Chinese celery) from our garden and served it with calamansi lime by the side. This was on our no-meat Friday and anyway, when we cook our own at h0me, never mind what day it is, we usually dispense with the strips of shredded chicken, usually found in Sarawak/Kuching laksa.

Yes, all of us agreed that it was VERY VERY good, almost as good as the one we had recently and fell head over heels in love with it! But the thing is this one works out to RM5.00 a packet for a bowl of nothing else other than the bihun and the broth whereas the other one is RM6.00, inclusive of all the added ingredients plus we do not need to do all the preparation and cooking ourselves.

I suppose this would be good for people living overseas where a bowl of our Sarawak delight will cost an arm or a leg – my brother said it was selling for NZD$15.00 a bowl in Auckland, New Zealand and I am sure it is not much cheaper in places in Australia.