Spicy Noodles Diary 2: Laksa

Kiehl's Singapore brand ambassadors flex their hyperactive muscles
fom welovekiehls.blogspot.com

Hello, Friends!

Singapore muscle boys are yummy, sure. But hot as they are, they're no match for the hunky appeal of a steaming bowl of laksa, which was what truly made me salivate first about the city.

My dear friend Ryan and I had just come from a night of "clubbing." Turned out to be a non-event after I had been silly enough to believe that Valium (it was all the rage back in my uni days) might intensify the experience. Honestly, I was just being pretentious. I assumed that Valium would give me a good time even if I could hardly afford club entrance fees, never mind overpriced watery vodka cranberries.

Back to yummy topic.


Ryan brought me to a hawker center for a cheap bowl of laksa. It was ginormous. It was tasty. It was at once silky, gritty, creamy, spicy... It woke up my taste buds, my nasal passage, my pores, my hairline - everything.

I cried.

Well, not really. The laksa was just so spicy that my tear ducts, which had gone into hibernation from Valium, promptly went hyperactive.

Since then, I haven't found a bowl of laksa which measures up to the memory of that first experience. Laksa in Hong Kong is so watered down, it makes me cry with frustration.

I was in the middle of an old I-don't-know-why-we-can't-do-laksa-right rant when a friend recommended Katong Laksa in Sheung Wan. So I went.

Katong Laksa's - well - laksa.

It was close. The scalding-hot soup had a satisfying richness without being too cloying. It had just the right amount of oil. The cockles were fat and juicy. The bean curd was perfectly spongy. And the level of heat was enough to make me break into a decent sweat. Except this being Hong Kong, of course, Katong Laksa's laksa "supreme" is much pricier than the standard Singapore hawker version. Besides that, you can't really beat a Singapore hawker centre for atmosphere, anyway...

Thank goodness Katong Laksa is just few steps away from Hong Kong's new gay precinct. I had fun being watched by someone who looked like a Singapore muscle boy whilst I noisily slurped laksa all over the place and pretended to read a trashy Sidney Sheldon paperback.



With Affection,
James