Culinary festival takes regional journey via laksa

Culinary festival takes regional journey via laksa

Maria Endah Hulupi, Contributor, Jakarta

Clear or rich, tang or savory, laksa is one of the most
versatile soups that comes in many different versions. In
addition, this one-meal dish is proof that the Malay people of
Southeast Asia have a shared culinary heritage.

The dish, which literally means "ten thousand" and indicates a
wealth of tradition and customs, has its roots in the Baba-Nyonya
cuisine of old that thrived in the region. Like other Baba-Nyonya
cuisine, laksa is characterized by the abundant use of Malay
spices and fragrant herbs blended with Chinese ingredients, like
tofu, noodle and rice vermicelli.

As Nyonya cuisine and culture flourished mostly in Indonesia,
Malaysia and Singapore, laksa too is known in these countries
whose indigenous communities have developed their own versions of
this spicy and fragrant soup. It is also common practice in the
region to lend a local name to the soup. Some of the more popular
versions are laksa Penang, laksa Singapore and laksa Betawi.

"Actually, Myanmar and Thailand also have similar dishes, but
they prepare it differently. So do people in Malaysia. This is
why, even though they use the same spices and ingredients to make
laksa, each state comes up with its own distinct flavor," said
Datin Amy Hamidon, the wife of Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia
Dato' Hamidon Ali, during a briefing for the Laksas of Malaysia
Fest culinary festival.

The 9-day festival, which opens on Jan. 19 at the
Intercontinental Midplaza Jakarta's Java restaurant, features
nine varieties of Malaysian laksa: laksa Penang, laksa Kuala
Perlis, laksa Kedah, laksa Nyonya Melaka, laksa Pahang, laksa
Johor, curry laksa, laksa Sarawak and laksam from Kelantan. Three
kinds of laksa are featured each day and, to complete the
culinary experience, are accompanied by other popular dishes from
Malaysian states.

The festival is jointly organized by the hotel and the
Malaysian tourism board, and its proceeds will go to two
orphanages in Aceh caring for children who lost their families to
the tsunami disaster.

The event is also supported by Perwakilan Jakarta -- the
Malaysian Embassy Women's Association -- of which 30 members have
shared their family laksa recipes with the hotel's kitchen staff.

Most laksa, Datin explained, were cooked in fish or prawn
shell broth. "Once the broth is cool, the prawn shells are
usually squeezed to fully extract the flavor. Then the other
spices are added," she said.

To serve the soup, noodles, vermicelli, chayote, bean sprouts,
thinly sliced pineapples, hard-boiled eggs and other condiments
are added to a bowl, over which the steaming hot laksa broth is
ladled.

Freshly squeezed lemon juice and chili sauce give the dish
extra zest.

Despite its endless variety, laksa can be differentiated
according to the broth.

Tangy, tamarind-based laksa include laksas Penang, Kuala
Perlis and Kedah, while the remaining versions are based on
coconut milk.

Laksa Johor tastes similar to laksa Penang, both using oodles
of noodles and dried fish. But laksa Johor is unique because
instead of using rice- or egg noodles, its noodle of choice is
spaghetti. It is thought that this European ingredient may have
found its way into the Malay dish during the time of Sultan
Johor, who traveled extensively and kept European mistresses.

Aside from Chinese and European influence, laksas in northern
Malaysia, like Kedah, Penang and Kuala Perlis, have more
pronounced Thai flavors because of their abundant use of Thai
herbs.

In Sarawak, the dish is flavored with only cinnamon and
aniseed, while the ethnic Chinese in Kuala Lumpur and Perak
created curry laksa by mixing in a variety of spices, and a
strong Chinese influence can be detected in Kelantan's laksam.

"Interestingly, laksa Nyonya Melaka (Malaysia) closely
resembles Indonesia's laksa Betawi. Both have a strong Chinese
influence in the spices and fish balls," said Datin.

For the festival, several spices were brought in from
Malaysia, while others from markets in Jakarta. Still others,
like daun kesum, were grown in the hotel's herb garden.

Finding the ingredients can be quite a challenge, because even
though the spices and herbs used in laksa are common throughout
the region, they have different names. To ensure authenticity,
however, some key ingredients must be imported from Malaysia.

"We want to stick to the ingredients that have been used for
laksa for generations," Datin said.