![]() ![]() This recipe feeds about 10 people and all the ingredients can be found at Asian supermarkets. ![]() But here it is, in its 2016 spicy-as-funk glory. It’s still going through an evolution, and it will probably continue to change. This is my attempt at recreating a dish from my mother’s homeland. Who robbed a culture, yet commodified its legacy. ![]() A tiny Miss Changy shaking her fists at the capitalist structures that are accountable for such a crime. I have some grandiose ideas in my head about sharing this laksa recipe with you all. A lot of us don’t really know where our food comes from anymore and for some people, their home-cooked “satisfaction” simply comes from watching MasterChef. Simply by association and consumption are we linked, rather than through any meaningful engagement with the creation process. Food, culture and humans have all become separate entities. To an extent, Sarawak laksa is akin to McDonald’s Big Mac… a multi-billion-dollar corporation that has become one of America’s most globally recognised cultural icons of the 21st century. How did the monopolisation, if not theft, of an entire culture’s national dish happen? Was it purely due to a socialised complacency and need to outsource laborious work? Is Sarawak laksa a prophecy, foretelling the collapse of cooking in our modern world? NCL Golden Tribe, one of the leading manufacturers of the pastes, claims that they supply 60 per cent of local restaurants and hawker stalls! That’s crazy, right? What exists in Sarawak are instant packet pastes produced by a handful of family-run corporations. Not even the old aunties’ aunties… If you Google “Sarawak laksa recipe” you’ll find nothing authentic. But the strangest thing is, nobody actually knows how to make it any more. People travel to this place just to eat it. Sarawak laksa is one of my favourite Malaysian foods. ![]()
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