Sarawak Laksa is a very well-known dish which originates from, surprise! surprise! Sarawak, Malaysia. Whilst Malaysia is blessed with many types of laksa, Sarawak Laksa remains one of my favourites. There was a recent article in the Star Newpaper which highlighted the uniqueness of the Sarawak Laksa and how it brings communities together.
Last Saturday was no different. This was the 3rd time we cook Sarawak Laksa at home. The first try was the best, the second was not so good and frankly, I was rather disappointed with how it turned out on Saturday.
We invited our group of friends from our Church Small Group (Cell Group) and a few other friends to join us in a session of eating and chatting. As an emergency measure, we bought some fried rice just in case the Sarawak Laksa was insufficient.
Some of the ingredients usedCooking started at about 11am in the morning by preparing the prawn stock as well as chicken stock. Not less than 1 kilogramme of prawns was used whilst we had 1 1/2 chickens to boil the chicken stock. We took our time, really. Since this was the third time cooking, we pretty much know what comes next and the cooking time required.
By 5pm, I was cooking the Laksa using 3 packets of Sarawak Laksa paste which was left lying in our kitchen cabinet for more than 3 months already. However, tried as I could by "tweaking" the taste with salt, sugar and coconut milk, I could not get the ideal full-bodied taste that I wanted. It was definitely lacking something. Perhaps, it was just waiting for a squeeze of lime when served.
Sarawak Laksa served with a squeeze of limeWe had a good crowd of about 16 that night and we had a good time chatting with one another. In fact, we chatted till about 11.45pm that night. It was great and memorable. Not the laksa though.
After a bit of "post-mortem", we reckon it could be the Sarawak Laksa paste. You see, the first time we cooked, we used the "Double-Swallow" brand of Sarawak Laksa paste. It was good and has a strong hint of spice and body. This time, there was only one "Swallow". Perhaps there is a difference there!
When the food did not turn out good, blame it somewhere else!I MUST perfect the recipe!
