All the recipes in the internet will only state units like cloves of garlic, pieces of dry chilli, number of candle nuts, cm of belachan and etc. He really enjoyed the process of buying the spices, the woman is helpful and most of important of all, he never knew that there were such things as lemon grass powders, galangal powders, lemon grass powders… and not to mention belachan powder readily available in the market. When the list was completed, Guai Shu Shu started to go through with the woman the other type of powders in the containers that is not in his first lists, and he ended buying almost all the powders that she sold except turmeric powder (actually, this is the yellowish curry powder that differentiates Sarawak Laksa from curry laksa). When he told her that he wanted SGD50cents of clove powder, she looked at him and said, “Encik, clover powder is very expensive, SGD50cents is around 1 teaspoon only!!!” She is kind enough to label for him all the powders he bought. Based on his understanding of spices, he bought about 10 spices ranging from SGD50 cents-SGD2 each. Therefore, since nobody knew the equivalent units, he made the decision not to follow the recipe exactly. Guai Shu Shu knew that he had no choice but to decide for himself. She would ask, “SGD 50 cents of galangal powder, enough for you? You want more? SGD1 is like this much?”. After she glanced through his list, she took out some small plastic bags and asked him to decide himself how much powder he wanted. (For example, the powder equivalent of 2 cm of fresh galangal). To my surprise, she was also not sure of such equivalents. He asked her for a piece of paper and jotted down a list of all the ingredients in the recipe’s original units and he asked the woman to give him the powder equivalent of these raw ingredients. Guai Shu Shu stopped by a store owned by one rather friendly Indian Muslim woman and told her that he wanted various types of spice powders. Based on these two recipes, Guai Shu Shu head towards Geylang Serai Market in Singapore to purchase the necessary ingredients. He is delighted to have found Recipe A and Recipe B (will explain in detail towards the end of the post). the day of gathering, Guai Shu Shu was browsing the internet searching for a recipe of Sarawak Laksa paste. Not to disappoint these old “comrades”, Guai Shu Shu decided to make his own laksa paste and the search begins…Īt around 6.00 a.m.

That obviously is inadequate to serve 15 people and they have put high expectations on the laksa since they have not eaten laksas for a long time. The night before the gathering, Guai Shu Shu discovered that he only had a pack of 300g laksa paste. In his mind, he still remembers that he had two 600 g packs of laksa pastes in the kitchen shelf. Guai Shu Shu was invited to a gathering of about 15 old classmates residing in Singapore and Southern Peninsular Malaysia and Guai Shu Shu promised them that he will cook laksa for the gathering but did not check the stock of his laksa pastes. Barrette Tan, the son of the Late Tan Yong Him) said the original paste to make Sarawak Laksa comprised of a mixture of 20 herbs and spices needed to blend well with the noodles”

Refusing to disclose his recipe, Tan (refer to Mr. In an article by Bernama New Agency dated 20 March 2006 (“LAKSA SARAWAK PASTE SET TO GO GLOBAL”), it was written Most people will not even bother to question how these pastes were made as the prices were reasonable and it can be easily purchased in major shops of Kuching, Besides, people were told that it is hard to home-made the laksa paste as it is laborious, time-consuming and a great number of ingredients were needed. Most Sarawakian households cooked their laksa from ready-made laksa pastes made popular by the Tan’s Family in the 1960’s and 1970’s. PART II – THE SECRET OF SARAWAK LAKSA PASTE

Laksa paste sarawak