My Special Bowl Of Laksa

I'm a lucky imp to have plenty of friends who cook and even luckier to have many that always willingly feed me. Wieeeee. After a session of pilates matwork at N's house, I'd thought we would pick her adorable 8-year-old son from school and just pop out nearby to grab lunch or toss up a salad or macaroni of sorts. Instead, she proudly announced that she had made fresh laksa paste 3 days ago and boiled up a tiny pot of gravy for all of us. Yayyy! She had also prepped and cooked the ingredients this morning. No cockles. Shredded chicken optional.

While we ran off to shower and freshen up, the trusty maid took her time to put everything together and gave it one final vigorous boil. We were in no hurry. After each exercise session, I can't usually eat very much. Same goes for N. In fact, we didn't want to eat for another hour or so. We wanted to have a cold drink first then pick up the boy before sitting down to lunch.

It was a beautiful thick spicy bowl of laksa with gravy full of exotic sediments that made the aftertaste a little pungent, tangy and spicy all at once. There were also sides of lettuce, raw tomatoes and carrots sticks. We love having the crunchy veggies to go with a spicy meal. The boy loves his vegetables. But he also likes to have berries along with it. Whatever! So long he's eating healthy.

My bowl was filled up with the yummy ingredients, with an extra serving of fishcake because I really love them. I haven't had laksa for a while because I'm not fond of what the commercial stalls serve up. The best ones are really those cooked in the friends' kitchens. And N, whose skills have been honed during all those years in Connecticut craving for Southeast Asian spices, does a mean version of it.