Thick rice noodles in a sour tamarind and mackerel broth, piled with cucumber, pineapple, mint, torch ginger and a spoon of pungent hae ko prawn paste.

Assam laksa is Penang's own answer to the coconut laksas of the south: a fish broth soured with tamarind (asam) and sharpened with torch ginger flower, a profile carried from Thai-influenced northern Malay kitchens into Chinese hawker stalls. Air Itam's stalls beside the wet market made the dish famous, and third-generation carts like Wan Dao Tou still build it on 50-year-old family recipes. The hae ko prawn paste stirred in at the table is the make-or-break step.

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Make it at home

Serves Serves 41 hr 30 minIntermediate

Ingredients

  • 600g mackerel (ikan kembung), whole
  • 1.5 litres water
  • 80g tamarind pulp soaked in 200ml warm water, strained
  • 4 pieces asam keping (dried tamarind slices)
  • 2 stalks lemongrass, bruised
  • 1 torch ginger flower, halved
  • 6 dried chillies and 8 shallots, blended with 1 teaspoon belacan
  • 400g thick round rice noodles (laksa noodles)
  • Half a cucumber, julienned; half a small pineapple, sliced
  • 1 red onion, sliced; a handful of mint leaves
  • Hae ko (black prawn paste), 1 teaspoon per bowl

Method

  1. Simmer the mackerel in the water for 15 minutes. Lift out, flake the flesh and discard bones; return heads and frames in a muslin bag.
  2. Add the blended chilli paste, tamarind water, asam keping, lemongrass and torch ginger. Simmer 40 minutes, then remove the bag.
  3. Return the flaked fish, season with salt and a little sugar, and keep the broth at a low simmer; it should be sour first, sweet last.
  4. Blanch the noodles, divide between bowls, and ladle the broth generously over.
  5. Top with cucumber, pineapple, onion and mint, and serve each bowl with a spoon of hae ko to stir in at the table.

Editor tip. Do not skip the torch ginger flower; without it the broth is just sour fish soup, and that floral sharpness is the whole signature.

Common allergens: Fish, Shellfish.