Thick rice noodles in a sour, spicy broth of flaked mackerel and tamarind, heaped with pineapple, cucumber, onion, mint and torch ginger flower, with sweet prawn paste on top.
What makes it assam laksa
Mackerel poached and flaked into the broth.
Tamarind and asam keping for sourness — no coconut milk.
Thick, round rice noodles.
Raw pineapple, cucumber, onion, mint, laksa leaf and torch ginger flower on top, and hae ko.
Where it comes from
Assam means sour, from tamarind and dried asam keping, and this is laksa with no coconut at all: a thin, sharp, fishy broth that's closer to Thai or Malay sour soups than to curry laksa. Penang is its home, and Penangites will say it's the only place to eat it.
The last touch is hae ko, a thick, black, sweet prawn paste, stirred through or dripped on from a spoon.