16th November 2006 around 1.30pm; I had a few hours on my hands and just happened to be in the neighbourhood of Petaling Street AGAIN, so I went searching for that nostalgic bowl of curry laksa again. This time I was given proper direction by my friend Mr. Lum. (btw, one of the entrances into Cong Wa Hong is directly across the Public Bank in Petaling Street).
As I walked into the narrow, wet and claustrophobic back alleys, the place seemed & felt smaller, darker and dirtier than I could remember. As its name sake, the place is dominated by Chinese people running their stalls of fresh fish, pork, veggies, dry goods, chickens (live ones and slaughtered on the spot...SARS? WHAT?). The type of faces still looked the same except that now there were foreign workers galore.
The authorities were doing some publicity stunts by conducting a "raiding operasi" on a warehouse of some fakes ( wallets, DVD etc), crowd gathered in back of an old shop house and the city & custom uniforms were seen going through piles of fake stuffs. I counted 4 cameras ( the big serious type used by TV stations) and no less than 8 reporters interviewing some gentlemen in office attire wearing a tie....go figure. I guess you won't see any display of fakes until 5.30pm today as a result the raid !
Anyways, back to my curry laksa; finally found the place of my boyhood memory. The place still looked disastrously unhygienic. Ordered a bowl of bee hoon cos they were out of mee, and had a 100plus cos the rest of the made on the spot drinks looked unappealing. The curry laksa came with chicken, long beans, eggplant and cockles and some sambal belachan....overall not a bad bowl of curry laksa, except that I find the gravy too curry powdery. But a disappointment nevertheless as I could not derived the same sense of satisfaction based on my expectations and memories.
I am sure the food quality was still the same as the place was packed, but why am I disappointed by this bowl of elusive laksa which I had painstakingly seek out after all these years? "Perceived Preference" I say ! Well, as in all things in life, it is a question of preference over a given period of time; be it our preference towards food, cars, wine (read evolution of a wine kaki) & the opposite sex. Something that works for you may not work for me...Kate Moss frankly is too bony for my liking...... I am more of a Kate Winslet type of guy! you get my drift !
What is a good bowl of KL curry laksa? you may ask. Well, start with a good ikan bilis soup base, fresh curry paste and coconut enriched gravy is a must. The curry taste must not be too over-powering. Ideally, the condiments should have long beans, cockles, blood jelly, tofu puff, steamed white chicken, and must be eaten with a good sambal and juice of 2 calamansi to balance off the richness of the santan...good or not ?
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