Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Penang Road Laksa

The speciality of Penang Laksa lies on its distinctive thick and sour minced fish brewed soup cooked with chilli in assam (tamarind) water and flavoured with serai (lemon grass). A bowl of Assam Laksa comes with sliced shallots, cucumber, pineapple, mint leaves, chillies, bunga kantan and sweet shrimp paste (usually poured on the spoon).

Some said the best Assam Laksa in Georgetown, Penang is at a stall called Joo Hoi Cafe along Penang Road (at the same spot as the Famous Penang Road Chendol)

The cafe is pretty cramp at peak time and is usually full even after lunch hour.

This old lady from the laksa stall overheard my conversation with my wife in Foochow and she asked where we came from. To our surprise, she is also from Sibu (living somewhere near Garden Hotel according to her). I would never thought I would meet someone from my hometown operating an Assam Laksa stall here.

Anyway, she claimed her stall here sell the best Assam Laksa in the city. She also gave us an advice to order some drink when seated as RM0.50 is chargeable by the cafe owner if the customer did not order any drinks. Thanks for the heads up!

The laksa cost RM 3 a bowl. I would agree it is the best Assam Laksa in Georgetown but not in Penang as I discovered a better Assam Laksa while in Air Itam.

Here are the standard ingredients used to prepare Assam Laksa. Orders keep pouring and the operators of the stall have to work efficiently to get them out. For the record, our bowl came out pretty fast, less than 5 minutes I would say.

So, for the people in Sibu, if you happen to be around Georgetown, do pay this stall a visit. This old lady would love to meet and talk to someone from her hometown too (as no one speaks Foochow here)

2 comments:

ChrisAu said...

wow..i miss penang asam laksa!

Bengbeng said...

i will bring my wife to visit her so my wife will have someone to speak Foochow to :)