Laksa

Laksa is a spicy noodle soup eaten in Singapore and Malaysia, a dish of Nyonya, or Peranakan, cuisine. There is no single recipe: Singapore cooks it with coconut milk and shrimp, Penang with a sour fish broth and tamarind, and Malaysian states from Kedah to Sarawak and Johor each keep their own bowl. ¹²

The name. Where the word comes from is debated. Singapore's National Heritage Board links it to the Hindi lakshah, a kind of noodle, or to Sanskrit. Malaysia's National Department for Culture and Arts says the Sanskrit word means ‘ten thousand’, a nod to the many ingredients that go into the bowl. ¹²

Where it comes from. Both sources place its birth around the fifteenth century. In the Singapore account, Chinese immigrants in Malacca and later the Straits Settlements combined local spices with Chinese cooking and created Nyonya dishes, laksa among them. The Malaysian account says traders first ate the noodles in a plain broth, and their Malay wives reworked it to local taste. ¹²

Singapore laksa. Its base is coconut milk, dried shrimp, fishcake and prawns, with sambal chilli and laksa leaves, usually over thick rice noodles and less often rice vermicelli. The broth should be neither too thick nor watery. People eat it in coffee shops, restaurants, homes and even at weddings, and many stalls stand in Katong, once the Peranakan centre. Cooks keep experimenting, adding crayfish or making laksa-flavoured crisps, and in March 2019 the dish entered Singapore's intangible heritage inventory (ICH-070). ¹

Penang laksa. Here the broth is made from mackerel and other fish, soured with tamarind and scented with torch ginger and laksa leaves. The noodles can be made from wheat or rice flour, and shrimp paste (petis) is stirred in or eaten alongside. The bowl comes with cucumber, salad leaves, eggs, lime and bird's eye chilli, and in parts of Penang also pineapple and mint. Malaysia's culture portal calls it a healthy dish because the fish broth is rich in protein. ²

Laksa across Malaysia. In Kedah, where it is also called Laksa Teluk Kechai, thick rice noodles meet a mackerel or tuna gravy that is spicier and more sour than in other states, thanks to tamarind. Sarawak laksa has its own spice mix, rice vermicelli, chicken, omelette strips, shrimp and a broth of sambal belacan, coconut milk and tamarind. In Kuala Kangsar in Perak, wheat noodles are pressed through a laksa mould and cooked over a wood fire. ³⁴⁵

Johor and spaghetti. Johor laksa is served with spaghetti instead of rice noodles. Malaysia's culture portal links this to Sultan Abu Bakar, who visited Europe, Italy in particular, in 1885 and asked his cooks to bring pasta into a local dish. The sauce combines fish, fish curry powder, coconut milk, toasted grated coconut and tamarind, and the dish is served at celebrations and feasts. ⁶

Laksa, tom yum or ramen? Tom yum kung, on UNESCO's heritage list since 2024, is a Thai soup of prawns boiled with lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, galangal and shallots, and it has no noodles. Ramen is a Japanese bowl of wheat noodles kneaded with alkaline kansui water. Laksa is a noodle soup too, but its broth rests on coconut milk and shrimp or on sour fish and tamarind, and its noodles are usually rice. ⁸¹⁰

Why it matters to you. ‘Laksa’ on a menu can mean a creamy coconut bowl or a sour fish one, so ask which kind it is. Traditional versions contain prawns, dried shrimp, shrimp paste or fish, so they are not vegetarian, and Penang, Kuala Kangsar and Johor laksa may contain wheat. Crustaceans, fish and cereals containing gluten are among the 14 allergens that food businesses in the UK and EU must declare. ¹²⁷