Laksa

Laksa is a Southeast Asian noodle soup. In Darwin, the most common version is curry laksa: a curry broth with coconut milk, scented with lemongrass and galangal, served in a deep bowl with noodles, chicken or prawns, fish cakes, wonton, fried tofu and bean sprouts, finished with cilantro, fried shallots and chili oil. Each cook keeps their own recipe for the spice paste, and there are Malay-style and Indonesian versions, yellow-broth variants, and even ones with crocodile meat.

The dish originated with the Peranakan, communities formed by the meeting of Chinese merchants with the peoples of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. There, Chinese noodles acquired chiles, spices and coconut milk. There are two main families: creamy curry laksa, and assam laksa, without coconut, with fish and tamarind, featuring a sour broth.

Laksa did not originate in Darwin, and there is no precise record of how it reached northern Australia. The city is closer to Jakarta than to Sydney and has a long history of Asian immigration. By the late 19th century the Chinese community already numbered thousands in the Northern Territory, and later families arrived from across Southeast Asia. More than three in ten residents were born outside Australia, and laksa became a dish common to all those communities.

On weekends many people have laksa for breakfast at the outdoor markets of Parap on Saturdays and Rapid Creek on Sundays. Some arrive early and bring their own bowl.

In 2019 the Territory government created the Darwin International Laksa Festival. For about a month, in October or November depending on the edition, a laksa trail runs through restaurants, stalls and cafés in the region, and on the festival day a blind tasting chooses the best version, awarded the Golden Bowl. Darwin is called Australia’s laksa capital, a phrase used by the government itself and by official tourism bodies.