Laksa Me

Laksa Me (Malaysian-fusion restaurant) has been catching San's eye as of late, with glowing reviews in Tummy Rumbles, A Few Of My Favourite Things and etc company, including the Age. We trooped down there to try it two weeks ago (and I am blogging it now because? I am sick. Sick, mind you. Not lazy. :D) for a lunch, when I needed a break from staring at my books.

We arrived there nice and early, in fact, we were the first customers for lunch!! Talk about greedy!

To start off with, we ordered drinks, of course. And I will put a picture of the green tea this post, not because it is Laksa Green Tea, it's normal green tea but I just feel like it, so hah. San had Little Creatures' Pale Ale to go with her anticipated spicy food.

My friend is an alcoholic, bwahahaha.

And I am a green-tea-holic. Not as bad cos that doesn't require rehab.

We ordered the Vegetarian Triangle ($6.80) to share, since it has been recommended by many food bloggers. (By the way, I was joking about San being an alcoholic, just in case people thought I am serious :D)

Sooo appetizingly yummy looking!

It did not disappoint, I really liked it! The covering was super crispy and there's enough filling in there - combination of veggies - to make the triangles very tasty. The sweet sauce (kecap manis?) served with it also added to the taste, making it yummy indeed.

San had the much-touted My Mum's Laksa ($9.50).

MY mum doesn't know how to make laksa, FYI.

San demanded this picture be blogged. Still the Mum's Laksa.

In her own words, much to her disappointment, she didn't feel that it lived up to expectations (and she had very high ones indeed). She thought it was just mediocre and not very fragrant. The spiciness to her, was a bit overbearing as she can taste the spiciness alone without the combination of the laksa soup (althought she didn't find it to be extremely hot). Chilli Padi did a better job, she recalled.

I had the Cheong-Fun with Fish Dumplings and Fried Pork Crackling ($10.00).

Don't ever say that backwards (Cheong-Fun) in Chinatown, unless you have a penchant for getting kicked.

First of all, the chef made his own Cheong-Fun rather than buying it off Chinatown stores, which earns a point in my book. However, it was all falling apart when it was served to me, hence it didn't look like Cheong-Fun anymore, more like thick rice noodles. There was fish cakes and fish balls along with bits of fried pork with it, which made it very fragrant combination. I have to say that the fried pork, fish and noodles went very well together as a whole, but something's missing in the broth. It's too coconut-y in my opinion and it could be spicier (as in more spices). More spices will add to its fragrance and taste, definitely. I did like it, but I thought it could be better.

Dessert was not stated on the menu, luckily we had the sense to ask the waiter whether there is dessert served. :P (Yeah, we were greedy and hungry). So if you want dessert, just ask the waiter! Desserts were all freshly made from scratch by the chef, hence it took a little while to come.

San picked the Pulut Hitam ($8.00).

Hitam and Orange.

It was very aromatic, we can already smell the coconut and pulut hitam even before it was set down before San. She tucked in with gusto and she really liked it - the sweetened coconut milk really mixed well with the pulut hitam. Pulut hitam, by the way is glutinous rice, also a Malaysian-esque favourite.

I picked the Tang Yuan (Tong Yuen) ($8.00).

Four is actually a lot, even if doesn't look so.

Yum, freshly made and none of those frozen Chinatown stuff. Tang yuan is a Chinese dessert made of floury dough with filling inside - traditionally red bean paste but there has been variations of black sesame and peanut. The one above was red bean filling. I love it - San reckoned there wasn't enough ginger in the soup but as I am not a big fan of ginger, I wasn't complaining. The tang yuan was tangy and nice, and the chef was generous with the filling. Yummy!

Overall - we found Laksa Me to be average on its mains, if only because we had read so many glowing reviews and went there with very high expectations. Too high, maybe. I should add here that I am from Penang (Island), Malaysia, the place of Mother of Hawker Food/Hawker Heaven hence I am VERY picky over hawker food. Very VERY very, I'm elitist and snobby like that. San has been to Penang and had our Penang laksa plus Malaysian laksa back in her own hometown, so I guess we're just extremely picky about finding laksa that is authentic. I guess it's not easy to get it here in Melbourne.

By the way, if anyone has any idea where I can get Penang-like Char Koay Teow in Melbourne, PLEASE tell me. I've been searching for five whole years and while there's good Char Koay Teow I've come across, none of them are PENANG Char Koay Teow. :(

- Picky Mouse

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Laksa Me
Shop 1, Liverpool Street
Melbourne 3000
Phone: (03) 9639 9885