Nyonya Laksa Lemak

The Peranakan Baba-Nyonya version of laksa, made in Malacca and Johor, uses a coconut milk base without the sourness of Penang's asam version, building its flavour instead from a complex rempah of dried shrimp, galangal, candlenuts, turmeric, and dried chili that is fried in coconut oil before the coconut milk is added. The result is a soup of greater subtlety and richness than either of its parent traditions — Chinese noodle technique filtered through Malay spice vocabulary — that is the most distinctly Malaysian of all the country's great soups.