Penang Assam Laksa

Assam laksa is the sour cousin of the coconut laksas found elsewhere in Malaysia, and Penang is where it is taken most seriously. The base is mackerel, boiled and flaked until the broth is thick with fish, then soured with tamarind and asam gelugor and scented with torch ginger flower, lemongrass and polygonum leaf. It goes over thick round rice noodles with shredded cucumber, pineapple, raw onion, mint and chilli, and is finished with a spoonful of dark fermented prawn paste stirred in at the table. The result is sour, fishy and pungent rather than rich, and it divides visitors sharply. Good versions turn up at hawker centres all over the island, often at stalls that have sold nothing else for decades.

What you actually see

• The fish broth - mackerel flaked into a tamarind base until the soup thickens.
• The torch ginger - the sliced pink bud that gives the soup its distinctive scent.
• The prawn paste - the dark spoonful of hae ko stirred in at the table.
• The garnish plate - cucumber, pineapple, mint, onion and chilli piled on top.

When to go

Stalls open through the day, but many sell out by mid-afternoon and the best known ones have queues at lunch. Air Itam and Balik Pulau have long-standing stalls, and most hawker centres in George Town keep at least one. Ask for less chilli if you want to taste the broth itself. Prices are low, in the region of a few ringgit.

Honest expectations

The prawn paste is strongly fermented and the smell puts off a lot of first-time eaters; you can ask for it on the side. Quality varies enormously between stalls, and the famous ones run queues of twenty minutes or more. Hawker centres are hot, cramped and noisy. Vegetarians cannot eat this dish in any real version of it.

Nearby

Kek Lok Si and Penang Hill sit close to the Air Itam stalls; George Town's hawker centres are everywhere.