Spent some time hanging out with my friend Matt B. the other day and we went to HT Oaktree Market on 100th & Aurora in Seattle and found this new one. But what is Asam Laksa? Here’s what Wikipedia has to say:
Asam laksa is a sour, fish-based soup. It is listed at number 7 on World’s 50 most delicious foods complied by CNN Go in 2011.[5] Asam (or asam jawa) is the Malay word for tamarind, which is commonly used to give the stock its sour flavor. It is also common to use asam keping (also known as asam gelugor), dried slices of sour mangosteen, for added sourness. The modern Malay spelling is asam, though the spelling assam is still frequently used.
The main ingredients for asam laksa include shredded fish, normally kembung fish or mackerel, and finely sliced vegetables including cucumber, onions, red chillies, pineapple, lettuce, common mint, “daun kesum” (Vietnamese mint or laksa mint) and pink bunga kantan (ginger buds). Asam laksa is normally served with either thick rice noodles or thin rice noodles (vermicelli). And topped off with “petis udang” or “hae ko” (蝦羔), a thick sweet prawn/shrimp paste.
Was about to drop some beef or chicken in there but I think that wouldn’t make much sense here. Sounds neat! From Malaysia! Let’s hit it up.
Here’s the back (click image to enlarge). So I’m going to go with 2 cups of boiling water and drop in the noodles and seasoning for 2 minutes.
A very light colored noodle block – almost white.
One seasoning packet.
Here’s the stuff of flavor.
Found these things at HT Oaktree Market too – they were in the Indonesian section and looked interesting. Upon bringing them home, I tried them and found they were horrid. Today I looked at the bag and you have to fry them. IT’S CRAZY!!! You drop some of them into some hot oil and fry them – they expand – really quickly too – and turn into these crunchy shrimp flavored chip-like things. Thought I’d add some.
Finished (click image to enlarge). Added onion, Fresno chili pepper, lettuce, some Komodo Shrimp Chips, a scrambled egg with Krazy Mixed Up Salt and Dua Belibis Chili sauce. The noodles aren’t shabby – nothing to write home about but decent. The broth is great – it is indeed sour, spicy and has a hit of seafood taste. If you squirted a ton of lemon juice in, it’d be a lot like Tom Yum. I really liked it – 4.0 out of 5.0 stars! UPC bar code 9556001128850 – get it here.
A Maggi Laksa commercial
Singapore documentary
You should try Asam Laksa with fish. I usually boil fish like kembung, mackerel or sardine, take the fish out, mash up the fish flesh, put it back into the fish broth and cook together with the noodles. If I don’t have fresh fish I will use canned sardines or mackerel. Garnishing for asam laksa includes juilenned cucumbers, sliced onions, 1-2 mint leaves and half of a hard-boiled egg. Try it.
Krupuk Udang is condiment that Indonesian people eats. you could eat it as a snack or add it to your meal to add some crunchy texture while chewing. and btw, you fried the krupuk too long. you should deep fry it into hot oil and then raise it when it has finished expanding.