The Friday Laksa!

To me, the best food is never at a high- end restaurant, maybe because I had never been to a high- end fine dining restaurant yet, but comparing to food in restaurant like McDonalds, Sushi Kings, Tao, Kim Gary, the kinds of restaurant that you would probably spend 20 ringgit for one meal, but none of them have the flavour profile that would match an authentic local stall food, and today, I will introduce the laksa from a night market in Kampung Bahru, Bukit Mertajam, Penang, the place where I live.

Every Friday, the place would we crowded with people from various neighbouring area, the specific address is Cangkat Damai, Taman Permata, 14000 Bukit Mertajam, Pulau Pinang, the night market stretches across Cangkat Damai, and the laksa is located at the end of the road where Cangkat Damai meets Lebuhraya Muhibbah. It would only take me 10 minutes to walk from my house to reach it, and I ate it almost every Friday before I went to study at university.

The laksa is made by some Chinese people, I’m not sure who is the genius behind the invention, but laksa in Penang is basically divided into 3 domains, one is the Chinese style, which has more acidity, one is the Malay style, which has a more salty flavour, and another is the tomato sardine style which taste like spaghetti Bolognese with the tomato meat sauce being replace by tomato fish sauce. Well, all laksa broth base is made of fish meat, it is form by cooking the fish to a mushy state and you can basically drink the fish.

Since it is made my some Chinese, the laksa has an acidic flavour profile, making it very appetizing together with the sour lime juice and chilli, making it more delicious. The broth is packed with the right amount of fish meat, not too diluted and not over saturated as well. The laksa noodles is white and smooth, while staying tender, it is chewy as well. The topping is easy, just some raw red onion and lettuce, but it goes very well with the acidity of the soup by adding a hint of sweetness. The laksa cost 4.5 ringgit for each.

The laksa stall is very famous at the area, with flow of customers that are nearly unstoppable, they would run out of ingredient even before 9pm. Besides laksa, they also sell fried noodles and fried vermicelli, which is also known as economical noodles in Malaysia. Well, I don’t know its price because I never order the economical noodles, my instinct always prompt me to buy the laksa every time I go there.