Our Sunday Laksa Ritual

Laksa is the first thing that comes to my mind when I wake up on a Sunday morning. It's the first word I utter when my eyes open.

Both Nee and I like simplicity and consistency. Simplicity and ease in deciding where to eat. Consistency in sticking to the same thing when it's good. Another word for that is just being plain lazy.

So every Sunday has become our Laksa day. It makes things simple because we don't have to think about what to eat and where to go. (How to blog like this. Eat also lazy.)

I don't know where the word Laksa comes from. I've always thought because it was spicy hot (Lak), you'd stick your tongue out and go 'sa sa'. Silly I know.

Nee says: Laksa is very Sarawak Kuching dish. The most authentic ones are here. Similar to curry laksa from KL. But our Laksa is more reddish and generally lighter than the curry ones. This Laksa practically has no curry.

This is the laksa stall that we go to every Sunday at Fat Cat coffee shop. The price just shot up by 5o cents a few months ago. I'm sure you can see that in the picture. Bloody petrol prices is affecting everything. Even laksa uses petrol.

This is the laksa lady who 'mans' or should I say 'womanises' the stall. She has a very good memory. Don't even think of playing memory game with her. You will lose.

Hawkers in general have very good memory. They actually remember what you wear and not your face. So next time, wear something flourescent flashy and the food will come fast.

Legend has it that the laksa here descended from the original grandmaster at Chong Choon cafe (Abell Road). From there came two descendents, one opened at New Chong Choon (Green Heights) and the other at Fat Cat. The earlier one sucks.

The Fat Cat laksa here is the best that we've tasted so far in Kuching. It is the only one where we can have many times without feeling jelak.

The beehon is just nice, not over cooked. It seems to have been drawn out as soon as it reaches the cooking point. Therefore it still maintains a certain degree of elasticity and bite, instead of being soggy soft.

We find the original Chong Choon laksa too spicy. The laksa soup here at Fat Cat is just nice and well balanced, in taste, texture and colour. I usually drink until got 'sook sook' sound come out. Drink until dry dry. Maybe it should be called LakSook.

The only drawback here is that the lady give too little condiments (meat, prawns). But maybe it's because laksa doesn't need a lot as it can kill the taste. By the way, I find that big prawns do not go well with laksa. It doesn't absorb the laksa well enough. So we don't usually order the special.

I also hate prawns with its shell, head and legs attached in a laksa soup, like the one at Golden Arch. Some people like it. I find it too strong, intrusive and overpowering. If the laksa soup tastes good on its own, then it doesn't need too much of anything else like santan or curry spices like the one at Foody Goody.

By the way, if you plan on eating at Fat Cat, you might want to bring your own drinks from home. A lot of times, the food arrives first before the drinks. Even when you've finished your laksa, and the snails have gone home, there's still no sign of the drinks.

We got fed up waiting for the drinks last Sunday. I approached the lady owner but she no hiu. She was busy doing the drinks herself and didn't even look at me. So we just took off. Maybe they can drink our Teh-C-Peng Special and soya drink themselves.