The verdict is in! The best Sarawak laksa can be found at Top 1 food court at Jalan Ang Cheng Ho, Kuching.
Sis no.4 and family was back for the weekend for the 2nd anniversary of mum's passing. She's a Sarawak Laksa nut, so laksa hunting is always on the agenda when she is home. We went to the one at Jln Ang Cheng Ho on Sunday (we haven't been there for a while) and we all finally agreed that the laksa there reigned supreme. A close second is the one available at Mei Mei food centre at Chonglin Park. The one at Chonglin has bigger and nicer prawns, but when it comes to laksa, I think the most important element of this genius invention of culinary masterpeice, is the soup. The laksa soup at Ang Cheng Ho is just right and more 'kau'... it's just superb... words cannot describe. You have to go and try it. It's somewhere behind Kuching Park Hotel. It is admittedly not the cleanest place in the world, but that is negligible, in view of the fact that it has the most wonderfullest laksa in the world!
Other popular laksa stalls in Kuching include the one at Foody Goody (next to Kuching Specialist Centre, Stutong) and the one at Ban Hock Road, beside the Grand Continential Hotel. I don't particularly like the one at Foody Goody, because the smell/taste of one of the spices used is too overpowering (I think my mum said it was jintan putih or something like that) and it blows off the delicate balance of spices. The one at Ban Hock Road is pretty okay. It was made famous by Anthony Bourdain, who did a taping there for the Travel channel.
I managed to find 2 brands of instant Sarawak Laksa paste at the supermarket. All you have to do is boil then add milk or coconut milk and it's ready to be added to beehoon and egg strip, etc... I got them for sis no.4 to bring back to Singapore and haven't tried it myself. I've been meaning to, I've had one packet in the fridge for a month already (keeping my cheese company).
Apparently, Sarawak laksa was invented by this man who was at the time running the SMB St. Joseph, Kuching canteen. It was such a hit that he started manufacturing the paste commercially, at his house at Green Road. It's the famous Swallow brand. He has since retired though, and the Swallow brand paste is no longer available. There are many other brands in the market, but according to hubby's cousin, the Swallow brand paste tasted better because it was produced the old-fashioned way, using charcoal fire. Anyway, I think this guy should be knighted, or in our case, 'Datukked' for such an amazing invention!
There must also be tonnes of MSG (monosodium glutamate/ Ajinomoto/ Ve Tsin) in the laksa that we eat at food stalls. Usually when we make it at home without MSG, it never tastes as good as the ones at the coffee shops. Hubby used to own a restaurant, Oriental Noodles, where they tried to make Laksa for sale. They never suceeded, even after experimenting with many different ingredients. I think the problem was that they did not use MSG in their food. Good for you or not, all I know is that MSG makes everything taste great!
So, here's to Sarawak Laksa; one of the many reasons to be proud to be a Sarawakian!
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