Laksa

Background

Laksa is a dish of rice noodles in curry or hot soup. In Singapore, the gravy of this rice noodle dish typically contains coconut milk, and the dish is often referred as Singapore laksa. Because of the coconut milk, it is also sometimes called laksa lemak or curry laksa.¹

Origins
There are differing opinions about the origin of the name “laksa”. Some believed it comes from the Hindi word lakshah, which means “hundred thousand”, because of the many ingredients that goes into the dish.² It could also be from the Persian word lᾱkcha, which means “vermicelli, macaroni, or long slices of paste put into broth”).³

The origin of this noodle dish as is known in Singapore is uncertain. It might possibly be a creation by the Peranakans or Straits Chinese, who have mixed Chinese and Malay/Indonesian heritage, given the inclusion of rice noodles, which is used by the Chinese, and spice paste by the Malays.⁴

Singapore laksa
Traditionally, the coconut milk that goes into making the broth was obtained by hand squeezing a mixture of grated coconut with water. These days, ready-made coconut milk is available in supermarkets, and this greatly reduces the time and effort needed to prepare the gravy. The base of the laksa gravy is the spice paste, which is made from the essential ingredient laksa leaves (Persicaria odorata (Lour.) Sojak or Polygonum odoratum Lour.), lemongrass, galangal, candlenuts, turmeric, shallots, chillies, garlic and belacan (dried prawn paste and dried shrimps).⁵ The rice noodles are separately blanched, drained and put into serving bowls before an adequate amount of gravy is ladled over the noodles.⁶ Some versions of Singapore laksa include additional ingredients like quail eggs and chicken.⁷

Although Singapore laksa is commonly found in hawker centres, the dish is linked to places like Katong, Sungei Road and Siglap. A few laksa stalls with some variation to the name “Sungei Road” can be found in the area off Jalan Besar, but the one that reportedly started along Sungei Road in 1956 was founded by Wong Yew Hwa, whose stall eventually relocated to the junction of Jalan Berseh and Townsend Road. Unlike other hawkers in the area, Wong uses fresh coconut milk without any condensed milk to create a lighter gravy.⁸

Katong laksa is known abroad and famous in the 1990s for the row over who actually runs the original Katong Laksa stall on East Coast Road. Through the help of long-time patrons of the dish in that area, a journalist eventually established the original one as that sold by the man nicknamed Janggut, which means “long beard” in Malay. He started hawking the dish in the 1950s at the Marine Parade jetty before settling down in the 1960s with a stall named Marine Parade Laksa at the East Coast Road area.⁹

Siglap laksa or laksa Siglap in Malay, from the coastal kampong village of Siglap, is not widely available in Singapore. The noodles used are called laksacap, which means “pressed laksa”, as the noodles are shaped into coils or the figure eight.¹⁰ Besides coconut cream, a key ingredient in making the broth is fish meat, specifically the ikan parang (wolf herring) and ikan kembong (mackerel) as well as the bones of ikan kurau (threadfin).¹¹ Other ingredients used to make the broth can include fish curry powder, ground and toasted coconut, tamarind and dried slices of garcinia cambogia (also known as brindle berry, or Malabar tamarind).¹² This mix of ingredients for the gravy gives it a fishy taste and a different texture from the other local laksa.¹³ Siglap laksa is accompanied by cucumber and beansprouts, rather than the prawns, cockles or fishcakes common in Singapore laksa.¹⁴

Regional variations
Regional variations of laksa include the Penang assam laksa, which has a tangy taste because of its use of tamarind (assam).¹⁵ Some states in Malaysia have their own version of laksa, such as Kuala Perlis laksa, Johor laksa, Pahang laksa, Sarawak laksa, etc.¹⁶



Author
Joanna Tan



References
1. Lee Geok Boi, AsianNoodles (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, 2015), 72. (Call no. RSING 641.822 LEE);Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore Hawker Classics Unveiled: Decoding 25 Favourite Dishes (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, 2015), 44 (Call no. RSING 641.595957 SIN); Tony Khoo, The Singapore Heritage Cookbook: Past, Present, Future (Singapore: Food2Print Asia, 2015), 57–58 (Call no. RSING 641.595957 KHO); Wendy Hutton, Singapore Food: A Treasury of More than 200 Time-tested Recipes (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, 2018), 48.(Call no. RSING 641.595957 HUT)
2. Sylvia Tan, Food (Singapore: Institute of Policy Studies: Straits Times Press Pte Ltd, 2016), 22 (Call no. RSING 394.12095957 TAN-[CUS]); Tony Khoo, The Singapore Heritage Cookbook: Past, Present, Future (Singapore: Food2Print Asia, 2015), 57. (Call no. RSING 641.595957 KHO)
3. Khir Johari, The Food of Singapore Malays: Gastronomic Travels through the Archipelago  (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2021), 484, 486.(Call no. RSING 394.120899928 KHI-[CUS])
4. Nicole Tarulevicz, Eating Her Curries and Kway: A Cultural History of Food in Singapore (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2013), 151–52. (Call no. RSING 394.12095957 TAR-[CUS])
5. Lee Geok Boi, Asian noodles (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, 2015),72 (Call no. RSING 641.822 LEE); Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore Hawker Classics Unveiled: Decoding 25 Favourite Dishes (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, 2015), 46. (Call no. RSING 641.595957 SIN); “Persicaria odorata (Lour.) Sojak,” National Parks Flora and Fauna Web, last updated 14 October 2021.
6. Khoo, Singapore Heritage Cookbook, 58.
7. Wendy Hutton, Singapore Food: A Treasury of More than 200 Time-tested Recipes (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, 2018), 48 (Call no. RSING 641.595957 HUT); Lee Geok Boi, Asian Noodles (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, 2015), 72. (Call no. RSING 641.822 LEE)
8. Geoffrey Eu, “Rich Pickings,” Business Times, 23 January 2010, 6–7. (From NewspaperSG)
9. Lea Wee, “Storm in a Laksa Bowl,” Straits Times, 7 November 1999, 2. (From NewspaperSG)
10. Khir Johari, Food of Singapore Malays, 236.
11. Azimin Saini, “A Recipe for Laksa Siglap: Singapore’s Forgotten Laksa,” accessed 12 January 2022.
12. Saini, “Recipe for Laksa Siglap.”
13. Saini, “Recipe for Laksa Siglap.”
14. Khir Johari, Food of Singapore Malays, 486, 525; Saini, “Recipe for Laksa Siglap.”
15. Jean Duruz, “Laksa Nation: Tastes of “Asian” Belonging, Borrowed and Reimagined,” in Culinary Nationalism in Asia, ed. Michelle Tien King (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019), 248. (Call no. RSEA 394.12095 CUL-[CUS])
16. Nazlina Hussin, The Fierce Aunty's No-nonsense Guide to the Perfect Laksa  (Penang: Hekty Publishing Sdn Bhd, 2017), 10. (Call no. RSEA 641.82209595 NAZ),



The information in this article is valid as of June 2022 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.