Laksa
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A bowl of Sarawak laksa.
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Laksa is a popular spicy noodle soup from Peranakan culture, which is a merger of Chinese and Malay elements found in Malaysia and Singapore.
Origin
The origin of the name "laksa" is unclear. The name may originate from the Sanskrit word laksha (लक्ष)[citation needed], meaning "many" (in modern Hindi, lakh, or 100,000) and referring to the soup's many ingredients[1]. Another theory[2] traces it back to Hindi/Persian lakhshah, referring to a type of vermicelli. It has also been widely believed that "laksa" may also be derived from the chinese word "La Sa" meaning "spicy sand". This is because the laksa gravy contains ingredient that feels mildly sandy.
Types of Laksa
The term laksa is used to describe two different types of noodle soup dishes: curry laksa and assam laksa. Curry laksa refers to noodles served in coconut curry soup, while assam laksa refers to noodles served in sour fish soup. Usually, thick rice noodles also known as laksa noodles are preferred, although thin rice vermicelli (bee hoon or mee hoon) is also common and some variants use other types.
Curry Laksa
Curry laksa (in many places referred to simply as “laksa”) is a coconut-based curry soup. The main ingredients for most versions of curry laksa include tofu puffs, fish sticks, shrimp and cockles. Some vendors may sell chicken laksa which uses chicken instead of shrimp. Cockles are usually very commonly used in laksa and most vendors would add them into laksa unless customers request not to have cockles for hygiene reasons. Laksa is commonly served with a spoonful of sambal chilli paste and is traditionally garnished with Vietnamese coriander, or laksa leaf, which is known in Malay as daun kesum. This is usually known as "Curry mee" in Penang rather than curry laksa, due to the different kind of noodles used (yellow mee or bee hoon, as opposed to the thick white laksa noodles). The name "Curry laksa" is more commonly used in Singapore. With the popularity of laksa in Singapore and Malaysia, there are even more 'varieties' of ingredients like lobster laksa, laksa yong tau foo and even plain laksa, just noodles and gravy, like the type found on Sungei Road. Laksa is extremely popular in Australia, especially in the Chinatown districts of the capital cities. Special deals, such as "Laksa Thursday" encourage many local business workers to frequent the Asian cafes to dine on Laksa and other noodle based soups.
Variants of curry laksa include:
- Laksa lemak, also known as nyonya laksa (Malay: Laksa nyonya),
is a type of laksa with a rich coconut gravy. Lemak is a culinary
description in the Malay language which specifically refers to the presence of
coconut milk which adds a distinctive richness to a dish. As the name implies, it is
made with a rich, slightly sweet and strongly spiced coconut gravy. Laksa lemak
is usually made with a fish-based gravy and is heavily influenced by Thai
laksa (Malay: Laksa Thai), perhaps to the point that one could
say they are one and the same.
- Katong laksa (Malay: Laksa Katong) is a variant of laksa
lemak from the Katong area of Singapore. In Katong laksa, the noodles are normally
cut up into smaller pieces so that the entire dish can be eaten with a spoon
alone (that is, without chopsticks or a fork). Katong laksa is a strong
contender for the heavily competed title of Singapore's national dish.
- Sarawak laksa (Malay: Laksa Sarawak) comes from the town of
Kuching in the Malaysian state Sarawak, on the island of Borneo. It is
actually very different from the curry laksa as the soup contains no curry in
its ingredient at all. It has a base of
Sambal belacan,
sour tamarind, garlic, galangal, lemon grass and coconut milk, topped with
omelette strips, chicken strips, prawns, fresh coriander and optionally lime. Ingredients
such as bean sprouts, (sliced) fried tofu or other seafood are not traditional
but are sometimes added.
References
- ^ Monier-Williams,
Monier, A Sanskrit–English Dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically
Arranged with Special Reference to Greek, Latin, Gothic, German, Anglo-Saxon and
Other Cognate Indo-European Languages (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1872)
[Monier-Williams]
- ^ Winstedt, Sir
Richard (Olaf), An Unabridged Malay–English Dictionary (5th ed., enlarged)
(Kuala Lumpur: Marican & Sons, 1963)
Copyrights:
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the
GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the
Wikipedia article "Laksa".
As at 16th May 2008
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