Sarawak Laksa Shootout: Lin Li Xiang and Aunty Lan

 By Lee Yu Kit, April 2021

Being keen on Sarawak laksa, I recently tried out an acquaintance’s recommendation. Lin Li Xiang had been open for about a year when I visited, not the best timing as much of 2020 was the MCO period with restricted dine in. 

Lin Li Xiang shoplot 

Located along a nondescript line of shoplots in Damansara Jaya, Lin Li Xiang is a Sarawak-food theme’d restaurant, a couple of notches above your typical noisy coffee shop. Within, it’s neat and spacious with a tiled floor and semi-tiled walls complementing the wooden furniture, which lends it a touch of class. Posters of Sarawak specialties adorn the walls, both noodles such as kolo mee, tomato mee and laksa as well as dishes such as curries and pig trotters as accompaniments to rice.  The friendly brother-sister couple who run the restaurant hail from Kuching, Sarawak, which boded well for the food.

I was there to try just the laksa. We ordered two dishes, the regular, priced at Rm9.90 and the Special (Rm15.90), which adds char siew, more egg, big prawns and fried wanton to the regular item.

Service was friendly and very quick, a large bowl of laksa served in a ceramic bowl a short while after ordering.  Big portion, soup a deep orange, the noodles topped with prawns, shredded chicken and omelet strips, with cut calamansi and a dark red sambal in oil served by the side.

Lin Li Xiang Special and regular laksa

The special looked even more inviting, with a thick slice of egg omelet jutting out the side, and the bowl topped with char siew, fried wanton and bigger, redder prawns than the regular.

The noodles were of the coarse meehoon variety, so much more fitting, to Sarawak laksa. The aroma wafting off the dish only heightened the sense of anticipation, being strong and piquant, sourish and hot, heralding that this would be strong in taste. 

After squeezing the calamansi liberally over the dish, I scooped up a little sambal and brought a spoonful of noodles in soup to open mouth. The flavour is immediate and punchy, the coarse meehoon, deep, intense flavour of the soup, more so than most Sarawak laksa dishes, so that it is almost curry like both in colour and flavour. This is very good Sarawak laksa, deeper and richer than most, instantly familiar and comforting if you’re a fan of Sarawak laksa.

Lin Li Xiang interior

There’s a textural quality to this Sarawak laksa that hearkens to its yeoman roots: it’s not refined and smooth and umami, or unctuously blended: the individual tastes leap out at you and assault your taste-senses, gripping you by the throat, not the sort for an indolent meal but a fully involving one.

The ingredients and portion are generous, given the price, with chicken breast pieces and beansprouts in the noodles.  The intensity works in its favour, with the sambal and calamansi enhancing the flavour, but I can imagine it being too strong for those who prefer a watered-down version more commonly encountered elsewhere.

The choice of Sarawak laksa has expanded considerably in the past few years and there have never been more options in KL and PJ. Most will use the ready made laksa paste as base ingredient, but there’s so much more to making a good laksa than just the base paste: good Sarawak laksa is an involvement, and in that respect, Lin Li Xiang’s Sarawak laksa stands in that top tier, of some of the best Sarawak laksa in KL/PJ that I’ve sampled. 

 

Aunty Lan's Sarawak Deli stall

 Aunty Lan’s Sarawak Deli is well-established among Sarawak laksa aficionados, especially for the thick broth. It’s a stall in a rather glum looking coffee shop with other stalls selling an assortment of foods, in the moribund NZX complex in Ara Damansara.  It’s a coffee shop set up, with Aunty Lan offering Kolo Mee, Kueh Chap, Kolo Mee Merah and Fishball noodles. The Sarawak laksa is the top draw, being RM8 for a small bowl and RM10 for a big bowl.

The laksa was served in a large plastic bowl, a bright red-orange broth with coarse meehoon with strips of egg, shelled prawns, beansprouts and chicken breast slices, and topped with coriander.  Cut calamansi and sambal paste served on the side. Presentation wise, it was a no-frills approach.

Aunty Lan's Sarawak laksa

What struck me about this laksa broth was its richness and relative smoothness, the complex flavours of sour, spicy, salty and herbal blending together in the thick, dark broth which was inviting enough to drink up till the bowl was dry. The peeled prawns were much appreciated and fresh, and were the star attraction among the other ingredients.

Since I ate at Lin Li Xiang and Aunty Lan’s on consecutive days, it was natural to compare the two Sarawak Laksa dishes.  Price wise, Lin Li Xiang’s charges a slight premium (RM9.90 vs Rm8, regular, Rm12.90 vs RM10 for large) but the portions at Lin Li Xiang appear to be more generous. 

Aunty Lan's Sarawak Deli offerings

Ambiance wise, there’s really no comparison between the bright, cheerful interior of Lin Li Xiang offering only Sarawak specialties, with the I-Tea House coffee shop setting in which Aunty Lan’s is located, in an inside shop lot. Both offer other Sarawakian specialties, which I didn’t try.

Lin Li Xiang offers Sarawak specialty drinks. Their coffee was very good, deep-throated, thick and tasty, a mile or two above your average coffee shop drinks. I-Tea House serves a wide variety of the usual drinks you get at most coffee shops, and the quality is as you’d expect, nothing exceptional.

Presentation wise, Lin Li Xiang wins, serving in ceramic bowls with blue decorations on white compared to Aunty Lan’s generic plastic-melamine serving utensils and bowls. Presentation matters as part of the overall eating experience.

For the price premium, the ingredients in Lin Li Xiang are not only more generous but better, the eggs and chicken strips being sprightlier in appearance. A concession to Aunty Lan is that the prawns are peeled, although presentation wise, a complete prawn with intact head does make a statement, even if it’s more inconvenient to handle.  Prawns in both cases were beyond reproach in terms of freshness and taste.

In the crucial taste test, both are very good as far as Sarawak laksa goes. It’s easy to see why Aunty Lan has a faithful following, with the almost creamily rich, smooth broth and strong flavour. Lin Li Xiang’s broth is more intense, with the flavour components more easily discerned compared to the blended complexity of Aunty Lan’s broth, and less creamy by comparison, but that in itself is not a bad thing, I think it’s a matter of personal preference.

Between the two, Lin Li Xiang provides a deluxe experience for its setting, generous portions and thematic approach; it’s that much classier and cozier versus the coffee shop approach of Aunty Lan’s, which hews more closely to the original stall on the sidewalk approach of Sarawak laksa typically found in Kuching, Sarawak. 

Both serve very good Sarawak laksa: to get a taste of the real thing, it’s no longer necessary to catch a flight to Kuching.

 

Lin Li Xiang, 93G, Jalan SS 22/11, Damansara Jaya, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Tel: 03-77336693

Business Hours:  7.30am-4pm daily, closed on Mondays

 

Aunty Lan’s Sarawak Deli,

I-Tea House, E-G-11, Block E, Jalan PJU 1A/41B Pusat Dagangan NZX, Ara Damansara, 47301, Selangor

Business Hours: 7am-9pm daily.