Laksa

Although Mak is from Johor and my aunt, Mak Ram, makes excellent Laksa Johor, I have never really been a big fan of that variety of Laksa. I spent most of my childhood in Kedah and thus was earlier introduced to and became hooked on assam laksa. Place an array of the assam versions in front of me – Penang Laksa, Kedah Laksa, Teluk Kechai Laksa, Kuala Perlis Laksa, etc – and I wouldn’t mind fueling up on just Laksa for breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, whatever…

Once, prior to my visit to Salford, my friend Nita asked me if there was anything I would like her to cook up for me. I was a bit undecided; “Hmm… laksa ke nasi lemak, hah?” Nita, being the angelic friend she’d always been, ended up making both – laksa for dinner the night I arrived in Salford, and nasi lemak for breakfast the next day. It did not matter that she substituted the laksa noodle with spaghetti – the kuah (the actual stuff that makes or breaks the whole dish) was simply divine…

Then, there was that long-distance call from Masni who was in Cardiff –
“Weh, tolong ajar aku macam mana nak buat laksa”
“Hah? Orang Penang pun tak tau buat laksa kaa?”
“Mak aku tak pernah ajar. Kalau nak makan laksa, kami beli je” (Hey, mind teaching me how to prepare laksa?)
(Are you telling me that you, a Penangite, didn’t know how to prepare laksa? Note: Penang is world famous for laksa)
(My mom never taught me how to prepare laksa. We just buy it if we want to have some.)

After finding out that her then husband-to-be was a big fan of laksa, Masni felt that she needed to equip herself with some skills of laksa making. Remembering that I’d always been fond of laksa, she called me to get the recipe and the instructions accordingly. That must have been one of the longest phone calls she had ever made to Leeds.

Being quite proud to be a self-confessed huge fan of a Malaysian dish, I was rather shocked by a bit of news from Tokyo I received via e-mail, the excerpt of which, read:

“For a year, they have served [chicken rice], laksa and other Singaporean signature dishes to Japanese and foreigners.

'We make everything ourselves, the sauces for the chicken rice and even the rempah for the laksa using fresh laksa leaves,' said Mr Koshiba”

Whoaa… what was that again? Laksa - a Singaporean dish??

And to think that all these years I’ve always felt a bit patriotic being able to honestly proclaim that I like a Malaysian dish first before anything else. I mean, I don’t mind the writer referring to chicken rice as Singaporean delights. Or rojak, or kaya toasts, or bee hoon fried in certain style. But laksa – the most legendary of all being the Penang Laksa – is definitely Malaysian in origin.

Isn’t it?