Royal Fusion Dish · Spaghetti in Fish Curry
Laksa Johor
Photo: Terence Ong / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Its noodles are Italian spaghetti, not rice noodles — reportedly at the personal instruction of a 19th-century Johor sultan who fell for the pasta on a trip to Italy.
Cooked spaghetti is drowned in a thick, spiced fish curry gravy made from flaked mackerel, coconut milk, and toasted grated coconut, then topped with cucumber, beansprouts, mint, and a wedge of lime, all mixed together before eating. Johor's market stalls and roadside shops serve it as a hearty one-bowl meal.
Why it's made this way: Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor reportedly ordered his palace cooks to swap the dish's original rice vermicelli for spaghetti after a 19th-century European tour, making it Johor's most distinctive and specifically royal-linked laksa.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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