#Eatsoethingnice article 1 - Assam Laksa
proudly a part of #Saysomethingnice
image credit: Veronica Ng
When Anas Zubedy first approached frigglive.com to participate in his
#Saysomethingnice, a campaign to get one million Malaysians to say something
nice to each other, we jumped at the chance and volunteered to write
#Eatsomethingnice, 17 articles on Malaysian street food.
Why 17 articles? Well, the campaign will kick off on Merdeka Day and will
continue for 17 days, to end on Malaysia Day on Sept 16, to create a time of
"positivity and peace." Hence, one street food article a day for 17
days.
Sounds quite easy, right? Not so, my friend. Our problem started when
Veronica and I began jotting down our favorite street food. It didn’t take us
long to realize that 17 dishes would only provide a brief snapshot of what you
could eat in a food paradise like Malaysia.
Because we take or research seriously by the time we finished writing, our
list had soya, chilli and sambal stains on it, the both of us had gained a
couple of kilos and we ended up arguing "But how can we not write about
Kolo Mee? Wei, Assam or Curry Laksa? Since when did Pie Tee become street food?"
Ahem. You get the general idea.
Truth be told, being born as Malaysians we take our diversity and richness
of culture for granted. Being forced to choose and narrow down only 17 street
dishes made us realize that there are so many culinary traditions of Malay,
Chinese, Indian, Ethnic, Western and Global influence melding in our beloved
nation that it was a near impossible task.
So while we certainly do not claim that our list is complete and exhaustive,
here's a frigglive tour through 17 dishes you should Eatsomethingnice.
Assam Laksa is one Malaysian
street food that can proudly claim to have made it into CNN’s list of World's
50 best foods.
Assam Laksa, popularly known as
Penang Laksa, is at its most basic description noodles in fish broth. It is
unique to Malaysia and is one awesomely amazing dish. Come to think of it, it’s
the perfect dish to illustrate the uniqueness and diversity of Malaysia! A good
bowl of Assam Laksa is one that contains the perfect blend of sweet, sour,
spicy, minty and pungent taste all infused together in the broth.
The aromatic, intense and flavorful
broth is suitably ‘fishy’ from mackerel, sour from tamarind and lemongrass, as
well as salty, spicy and sweet. The scent of the spices hits your nose with
every mouthful of springy noodles that have been lusciously coated with the soup.
The onions add an extra touch of
heat while the pineapple is sweet and cuts through the tangy tamarind soup.
Through it all, our favorite bits are the crunchy Julienne cucumbers and fresh
mint that are the best antidote of coolness for the onslaught of chilli heat.
As crazy as the ingredient list looks,
the actual process is not at all difficult as the key is simply to season it
correctly for the perfect balance of sour, sweet and salty. The spice paste can
be made in advance and the soup only needs just over an hour’s cooking time.
Ingredients:
0.8kg Kembong fish (Indian mackerel)
2 liters water
100g shallots (blended)
30g fresh turmeric
60g galangal (blended)
1 lemongrass (blended)
1 lemongrass (smashed)
1 ginger flower
60g chilli boh
20g belacan
40g prawn paste
80g kesum leaves
15g tamarind skin
75g tamarind paste (soaked in water
and squeezed)
10g salt
40g sugar
1kg laksa noodles
Condiments:
lettuce
pineapple
red chilli
birds eye chilli
red onions
mint leaves
ginger flower
Method:
Steam the fish until cooked then
leave it aside to cool. Debone the fish and leave aside. Bring a pot of water
to the boil and add all the ingredients except fish, seasonings, laksa noodles
and condiments.
Remove laksa leaves from the stock. Add
in fish and seasonings. Blanch noodles and serve hot with laksa soup and garnish
with cut red chillies and mint leaves.
Labels: #eatsomethingnice, Assam Laksa
posted by Dave Avran at 10:00 am
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