Recipe: Make Laksa With a Tangy Twist in Penang’s Iconic Asam Style

Aim Aris and Ahmad Salim are no strangers to Penang, the state widely considered to be Malaysia’s best food destination. In 2021, the Melbourne-based creative duo released Penang Local, a collection of 70 approachable recipes. Now, they’re doubling down with A Day in Penang, a fresh cookbook that dives as deeply into the state’s rich history and culture as the recipes themselves.

True to its name, the book offers a vibrant dawn-to-dusk tour of Penang, starting with kopitiam breakfast staples before moving into the high-heat energy of midday hawker stalls and night markets.

One of the more iconic dishes is asam laksa, which stands apart from the coconut-rich curry styles found elsewhere. “Developed by Peranakan cooks... it’s a beautifully balanced sweet-sour-umami bowl,” the authors write.

The secret lies in the tangy tamarind (asam laksa means “sour soup” in Malay) and flaked mackerel, which are finished with fresh toppings like cucumber, pineapple and red onion, and a dollop of pungent hae kor, a molasses-like shrimp paste.

Aris and Salim suggest not to skip on the shrimp paste – known as petis in Malay, or hae kor in Hokkien – which you can find online or at specialised Southeast Asian grocers.

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Asam laksa

Serves 4
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

80ml (1⁄3 cup) vegetable oil
2 tbsp sugar, plus extra if needed
80g (1⁄3 cup) tamarind paste
1 bunch Vietnamese mint
2 tsp salt, or to taste
2 tbsp fish sauce, or to taste
250g dried laksa noodles or fresh thick round rice noodles (see note below)
Hae kor (sweet shrimp paste), to serve

Laksa broth

1kg mackerel, cleaned, scaled and gutted (ask your fishmonger to do this for you)
6 slices dried tamarind

Laksa paste

20 dried chillies, seeded
2 red onions, roughly chopped
1 tbsp toasted belacan (fermented shrimp paste)
1 lemongrass stalk, white part only

Condiments

1 long cucumber, julienned
2 torch ginger flowers, halved and finely sliced (optional)
1 red onion, finely sliced
1 iceberg lettuce, finely sliced
4 bird’s eye chillies, halved and sliced
1 small pineapple, peeled, cored and diced
1 bunch mint

Method

To make the laksa broth, bring 2 litres (8 cups) water to the boil in a large saucepan. Add the fish and dried tamarind and boil for 10 minutes. Transfer the cooked fish to a bowl and strain the stock.

With clean hands, pick the flesh off the fish and discard the bones. Break the fish meat into bite-sized pieces, then return it to the stock and set aside.

To make the laksa paste, place all the ingredients in a food processor and process to a fine paste.

Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat, add the laksa paste and saute for 5–7 minutes until it smells aromatic and the oil has separated. Add the sugar and stir for another minute. Pour in the fish stock laksa broth and add the tamarind paste and Vietnamese mint. Cover and bring to the boil over medium heat. Check the broth and season to taste with salt, fish sauce and sugar.

Prepare the laksa noodles according to the packet instructions.

To serve, divide the noodles among bowls, pour over the laksa broth and top with the condiments. Serve immediately with a spoonful of hae kor.

Note

Dried laksa noodles or fresh thick round rice noodles work best. If you can’t find either at your local Asian grocer, udon makes a great substitute thanks to its similarly chewy texture.

This is an edited extract of A Day in Penang by Aim Aris and Ahmad Salim, published by Thames & Hudson Australia (RRP $39.99).