Meet The Manufacturer: #1585: CarJEN Nyonya Curry Laksa

Here’s the new CarJEN Nyonya Curry Laksa! This one’s supposed to be pretty good and comes with a sachet of sambal dipping sauce. So to start, let’s see what wikipedia has to say about the term Nyonya:

From the Malay influence a unique “Nyonya” cuisine has developed using typical Malay spices. Examples are Chicken Kapitan, a dry chicken curry, and Inchi Kabin, a Nyonya version of fried chicken. Pindang bandeng is a common fish soup served in Indonesia during the Chinese New Year and so is a white round mooncake from Tangerang which is normally used during the Autumn Festival. Swikee Purwodadi is a Peranakan dish from Purwodadi, it is a frog soup dish.

Nyonya Laksa is a very popular dish in Singapore and Malacca, Malaysia while another variant called Asam Laksa is famous in Penang, Malaysia. Pongteh is also another popular and savoury dish of the Peranakan community. The main ingredient is onion, black mushroom (optional), chicken (at times pork is used instead of chicken, hence it’s called Babi Pongteh) and fermented bean sauce. The Malaccan Nyonyas are well known for this dish.

Okay now let’s find out about laksa – wikipedia says:

Laksa is a popular spicy noodle soup in the Peranakan cuisine,^[1][2] which is a combination of Chinese and Malay cuisine. It can be found in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.^[3] CNN Travel ranked Penang Assam Laksa 7th out of the 50 most delicious food in the world.^[4]

The unique fature of this instant noodle is the sambal dipping sauce – again, I’ll reference wikipedia about sambal:

Fresh chilis are pounded together with toasted shrimp paste (belacan) in a stone mortar to which sugar and lime juice are added. Originally, limau kesturi or calamansi lime, is used but since this is scarce outside of Southeast Asia, normal lime is used as a replacement.^[7] Tomatoes are optional ingredients. Sometimes, sweet sour mangoes or equivalent local fruits are also used. It can be eaten with cucumbers or ulam (leafy herbs) in a meal of rice and other dishes. A Malaysian-Chinese version is to fry belacan with chili.^[8]

Sounds like we have a lot of flavors going on in this one! Let’s check out the new CarJEN Nyonya Curry Laksa!

Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge). Contains shrimp. To prepare, ad noodle block to 400ml boiling water and cook for 2 minutes. Add in curry paste sachet content and stir in, then the creamer sachet content and combine that as well. Garnish with the contents of the sambal sachet and enjoy!

The noodle block.

There’s so many large sachets that they get their own sachet to contain them all!

The Nyonya Curry Laksa paste sachet.

Has a kind of sweet scent to it.

A non-dairy creamer sachet.

Coconut powder – smells like coconut!

Finally, the sambal dipping sauce.

Has a strong shrimp scent to it.

 

Finished (click image to enlarge). Added mint leaf, shrimp, vegetable ball, mung bean sprout, sweet onion and tau pok (tofu puff). The noodles have a very standard and familiar quality to them with just a little extra backbone; they are easily broken by pursing the lips, however they are not spongy or mushy. The broth is superb – firstly, the coconut creamer gives everything a nice richness. The Nyonya Curry Paste adds a nice flavor – sweet and colorful. The sambal has lots of nice bits of shrimp in the paste as well as a little heat and citrus. This was absolutely fantastic stuff. 5.0 out of 5.0 stars. EAN bar code 9557226082989.

Florence Tan Best Nyonya Recipes – (from Amazon) – Nyonya dishes with its piquant, spicy, savoury and sweet flavours are now within easy reach with this collection from veteran Nyonya chef, Florence Tan. Learn how to cook perennial favourites like PineapplePatchree, Chicken Rumpah, and Pang Susi, a dessert of savoury meat encased in sweet pastry. The elaborate preparation of Nyonya cuisine is clearly explained, from the seasoning and spicy paste to basics like food colouring and coconut milk, allowing you to appreciate the many layers and flavours of Nyonya fare. With easy-to-follow instructions and careful details, Florence Tan makes it a breeze to reproduce the best meals from her collection of Straits Chinese recipes.

Curious about the culture and history of Melaka? CarJEN Nyonya Curry Laksa is made in Melaka – here’s a short travelog which gives you a little snapshot of the history.