Nyonya Noodle Soup · Sour & Smoky
Assam Laksa (Penang Laksa)
Photo: DTW / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Assam laksa began as a way to use the bony scrap fish left over once a fishing family's best catch was sold — tamarind was stirred in mainly to mask its oiliness.
Thick rice noodles sit in a tangy, fiery broth built from flaked mackerel, tamarind (assam), and a paste of lemongrass, galangal, and dried chilli, then topped with cucumber, pineapple, mint, torch ginger flower, and a dab of dark prawn paste (hae ko). Hawker stalls across Penang, especially around Air Itam, simmer the fish broth in huge pots and assemble each bowl to order.
Why it's made this way: The dish is a Penang Peranakan (Nyonya) creation that fused Malay tamarind-and-herb cooking with Chinese noodle traditions and Indian-traded tamarind, and it remains the dish most closely tied to Penang's identity as Malaysia's street food capital.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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