Laksa is a popular spicy noodle soup from the Peranakan culture, which is a merger of Chinese and Malay elements found in Malaysia and Singapore, and to a lesser extent, Indonesia. 
It’s a noodle dish that is quickly gaining popularity outside of Southeast Asia because of the scrumptious taste. To most people, especially the western media, laksa means curry laksa, a noodle dish in coconut milk and curry soup base. A good laksa for us must have good depth of flavour without being too oily.You’re a fan of chicken laksa, seafood laksa and assam laksa. It’s probably not the healthiest of dishes but on a cold day it’s great comfort food. Service turnaround tends to be pretty quick due to the laksa being pre made and it’s always nice when it’s served in a decent sized bowl with good quality ingredients.
There are many different types of laksa but the two dominant ones are curry laksa (coconut milk based) and asam laksa (tamarind based). Laksa is an iconic street food served by street vendors (hawkers) throughout Malaysia, a dish that I grew up eating…
Curry laksa (in many places referred to simply as “laksa”) is a coconut-based curry soup. The main ingredients for most versions of curry laksa include bean curd puffs, fish sticks, shrimp and cockles. Some vendors may sell chicken laksa. Laksa is commonly served with a spoonful of sambal chilli paste and garnished with Vietnamese coriander, or laksa leaf, which is known in Malay as daun kesum.
The term “Curry laksa” is more commonly used in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. Laksa is popular in Singapore and Malaysia, as are laksa yong tau foo , lobster laksa, and even plain laksa, with just noodles and gravy.
Asam laksa is a sour, fish-based soup. It is listed at number 7 on World’s 50 most delicious foods complied by CNN Go in 2011. Asam (or asam jawa) is the Malay word for tamarind, which is commonly used to give the stock its sour flavor. It is also common to use asam keping (also known asasam gelugor), dried slices of sour mangosteen, for added sourness. The modern Malay spelling is asam, though the spelling assam is still frequently used.
