Hot on a trail for Nyonya laksa, my crew and I found ourselves in Melaka last Friday. Now if KL seemed like the inside of an oven recently, Melaka was that oven cranked up to the highest setting. Whew! Was it hot, hot, hot. Our gracious host for the day was Mrs. Ee Yong Neo (yes from the same talented family as the now infamous Baba Ee). She used to run a popular coffeeshop serving nasi lemak, nyonya laksa and economy rice. Nowadays, she relaxes with her two dogs, a rather excitable terrier pup and a more laid-back Shih-Tzu. Man, I have no idea how furry creatures can survive in this sweltering heat.
The front of her house still has long tables and chairs from her coffeeshop days. She was all set with the ingredients when we got there. It appears that Melaka Nyonya laksa also has quite a number of ingredients and the only one I've seen so far that uses candlenuts though I daresay the Northern version probably dabbles in it too.
Shallots, garlic, lemongrass, galangal and candlenuts are pounded into a rough paste, this is then fried in oil until 'garing', says Auntie Ee. Sometimes she also includes belacan and dried prawns in it to add sweetness to the broth. When she was running the shop she would have large batches of the fragrant ingredients ready fried and kept in the fridge. So with hungry punters waiting, she could speedily make the broth in no time.
After the pounded ingredients are fragrant, she adds in santan, chicken stock, turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and white pepper. This is then simmered for 20-30 minutes. When it's almost done, she'll put in a handful of daun kesum (Vietnamese ginger). The broth she made that day was incredibly thick. For thinner broth she uses more stock and less santan. "People from KL who come here thinks it's curry mee because of the strong flavours but there's absolutely no curry powder in a Nyonya laksa," Auntie Ee explained.
So many yummy things go into the laksa- noodles, cucumbers, beansprouts, boiled egg, fishballs, fishcakes, fuchuk and of course lots of raw cockles. And if that's not hot enough some homemade chilli paste should add extra kick!
Auntie Ee learnt how to make the laksa from her mother. It's a recipe passed from one generation to the next so we were honoured to see it first-hand. After receiving a nice hot bowl of laksa with two spoonfuls of cockles (I'm greedy boots when it comes to fresh siham), it's time to chow down.
Wow! This laksa packed a punch. It was peppery and fragrant, thick and rich. I could feel blood rushing to my head. On first taste, it almost reminded me of a Johor laksa minus the fishiness. I realised that I had never really eaten a true blue Melaka Nyonya laksa before. All those in KL are just pale comparisons. The only problem was the heat and humidity. What made it worse was that I also added a huge dollop of sambal thinking it was not going to be spicy enough. A mistake I would pay for later.
In hindsight, it might not have been the wisest of things to eat during the sun's peak. Battling rivulets of sweat trickling down my back, I forged on. I felt like I was melting but that's the trouble with delicious food, you can't stop eating even when you start seeing black spots in front of your blurry eyes.
Finally, feeling quite faint we pushed our bowls aside, packed up the rest and thanked our wonderful host. We could barely make it to Donald and Lily's to douse the fire raging in our bellies. And in Melaka what better way to cool down in this belacan making weather than with some old school cendol. "Want to try the Nyonya laksa here? It's good," said one of my friends. Err... let's keep something for next time, shall we? The cendol was excellent with good gula Melaka that gave you a lingering mellow sweetness.
Still hot and bothered we went to the famous Limbongan coconut shake shack where wonders on wonders, in 3pm heat there were already people queuing up for the insanely refreshing shakes. It's fresh coconut flesh and water blitzed with ice cream. On the drive back to KL we realised that the whole day had a coconut theme to it. Everything we ate had an element of that wonderful, versatile fruit. As Mr. Belafonte sang, "coconut got a lot of iron, make you strong like a lion... rrrrrroOARR!"
As if the coconut shake did not throw us over the edge, back in KL and feeling peckish we made a pit-stop at Medan Selera 223 and walloped some nasi lemak and juicy fried chicken.
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