Ahhhh, asam laksa, the other Penang hawker food that makes up the big three must try dishes whenever one visits the pearl of orient. The other two, of course, are char kueh teow, and prawn mee.
the glorious Penang laksa, look at the amount of fish!
While you can find pretty decent char kueh teow (aunty gemuk at Kelana Jaya, Seng Lee at Damansara Height), and behind and prawn mee (such as this one at Yon Lee, TTDI) in Klang Valley, getting a good bowl of asam laksa outside Penang proved to be much tougher.
The best asam laksa I’ve found this side of Peninsular Malaysia  would be the stall at Alisan, SS4. While it ‘s pretty good and positively edible, there’s still quite a big departure in quality when you compare that to those from Penang.
Laksa at Taman Emas kopitiam, opposite Peng Hwa high school
While the Ayer Itam stall often gets the nod as one of the best Penang laksa, many locals from this part of the island usually prefer this stall within Taman Emas kopitiam at Jalan Gottlieb.
This is the same stall that used to operate at the intersection between Jalan Bagan Jermal and Jalan Tanjung Tokong, some half a kilometers away. I remember mom used to tapao from there over 20 years ago.
popiah, chee cheong fun, chai kueh, and laksa
The laksa, selling at RM 2.80, comes with fresh cucumber, lemongrass, vegetable, torch ginger flower, pineapple, sweet prawn paste, chili, and that asam based broth thicken with porch and shredded ikan kembong meat. Heaven!
The stall also sells deep fried pohpiah that goes very well with the broth, and the chai kueh is not bad either.
KY and Shiang
For those who might not fancy laksa as much, there’s curry mee and char kueh teow stalls too. We ended up tapao-ing 10 packets of laksa to KL. Note the number of pre-packed noodle they’ve prepared in the photo above to give you an indication of how popular this place is.
The shop operates from late breakfast to afternoon. Try it!
Address:
Taman Emas kopitiam
Jalan Gottlieb
10350 Georgetown, Penang
GPS: 5.433316,100.302864
It’s HOKKIEN not prawn mee!!!! Boo
Tim,
Too many KL noobs get confused, I gave up trying to keep saying it’s hokkien mee already. Go with the flow maaa. lol
the AMOUNT OF FISH is daymn important loh. if not, it’ll taste like diluted fish juice wtf
Yeah I’ve ate here before. Good stuff. Penang laksa is asam laksa right?
Oh no, apasal tempting me to go penang right now !! i wan this!!!
Tey Cindy,
hahaha wtf diluted fish juice!
Huai Bin,
yess correct!
Jess,
hahah make it happen! 😀
That Penang laksa / asam laksa looks sooooooooooo good! Thanks for blogging it, KY 🙂
Cecilia,
you’re welcome! 😀
Its becoz only Penang Kia uses Hokkien Mee for Prawn Mee. The rest of the world uses Hokkien mee for the braised one lar. We r not NOOB. . .hehehehe!
Still Penang’s asam laksa the best!!! I can’t find any nice one here in KL… *sobs* 🙁
foodcrazee,
hahah yeah I know!
sotong,
Agreed fully!
a fren brought me to one hawker area in farlim after BP. the hawkers are in tricycles with some tables set up in a square. the laksa there is kinda nice and different. the fish meat is scooped using spoon onto the bowl and not all mashed up. nice and i wonder if it’s still there.
no doub the pearl serves the best assam laksa/penang laksa in the nation
assam laksa is damn shiok esp. with tons of har ko! nice nice..
KY, I hate you! You’re making me crave for it at this very instant. Dang! Have to plan a trip back to Penang soon now. >_<
Looking forward for a year end trip to Penang and enjoy all the local delicacies…maybe can chill out at Hard Rock too…
i like the laksa…..and don’t know what to do now!
foodcrazee,
true that
ciki,
haha yah the pungent smell is awesome 😛
gracieq,
haha why hate me! go! 😛
JD,
yah it’s a pretty decent place to chill esp if you like to rock 😀
hApPy,
hahaha what do you mean don’t know what to do!
wah the laksa looked so thick & pekat… and chipped bowl. haha best!
eiling,
yah memang damn best! hehehe, old school wan ok
oh boy…u reminds me of this stall…love the laksa and popiah when i was in penang…very chun ler…missing the laksa now…
btw, do visit my latest review in a indochine restaurant…
via,
oOo i shall check on that 😀
sudden downpour got me stuck at the kopitiam the other day….fml
winsern,
hahahah that one memang FYL
Most people would be torn between this and the Ayer Itam one.
I never ate here, but the Ayer Itam one was good. Though slightly dirty.
J2Kfm,
yeah, this place is a lot more hygenic though.
fuck!! just read this entry today. this is the best assam laksa in the whole world i tell u!!!
I miss it like mad!!
Robb,
just go to Penang, Robb! 😛
Wow~~ I want to eat! Must ask my university friends go there to have a try.
university student,
do it!
so miss penang T.T
penang kia: make a trip back 😀
This is 1 of the best laksa in town~
However, it’s not recommended to go during lucnch time on weekday, as traffic is usually very jam (school knock-off time).
Jam Choo: ya traffic can be quite epic there on rush hours