Laksa Festival

Darwin is the laksa capital of Australia. It's not surprising that an Asian bowl of yumminess has become a culinary icon in the Top End — after all, Darwin is closer to Singapore than to Sydney, and historically it has always had a thriving Asian population.

This is the third year of the Darwin International Laksa Festival.

For the last month the Laksa Festival has been publicised by posters, newspaper and TV advertising, stickers on pavements and banners on poles all over Darwin. I am going to watch with interest how all these stickers are removed ...

Basically, laksa consists of rice noodles in a spicy coconut soup flavoured with lemongrass and galangal. You can choose to have your laksa topped with prawns, chicken or fish. Most laksa is garnished with herbs, usually mint and laksa leaf (Vietnamese coriander), eggs, deep-fried tofu and beansprouts, with a spoonful of sambal chilli paste on the side.

In the 15th century, Chinese traders settled in the Malaysian region and brought their noodle soup with them. The Malay women they married brought their own spicy flavours to the dish. I reckon Malaysian food (char kway teow! roti canai!) is one of the most delicious cuisines in the world. Here I am trying some laksa in Georgetown, Penang 2015. ;)

The quest for Darwin’s best laksa is not taken lightly. From 1 to 28 November, Darwinites vote for Darwin’s laksa of the year in a purpose-built app. But it's not only laksa that inspires competition. There's an ‘inspired by laksa’ category. People come up with laksa milkshakes, laksa chocolates and laksa cocktails. In previous years one of the ‘inspired by’ winners was laksa ice-cream. The golden bowl sundae is popular in one ice-cream shop. Laksa marshmallow, anyone?

Day of judgement has arrived. Here, on the green lawns of Parliament, the winner/s will be announced.

A number of 'laksa inspired' cocktails were available. The Delaksa is made with spicy rum, coconut, mint, lemongrass, ginger, chilli, kaffir lime ... and noodle. I was almost convinced —until the noodle bit. Maybe a stick of raw noodle used as a swizzle stick? Charlie's Bar, which is a Darwin institution, had boozy laksa oysters ($10 for one) and crocodile dumpling laksa noodles on offer, with a vegan option. What is a vegan substitute for crocodile, I wonder?

Ken, who has a horror of queues (I have mentioned this before), deputised me to buy our laksa while he went for a walk. I went very very early, before the crowds descended at dusk, and gave our custom to this cheery lady. Sadly there were no prawns on offer but her laksa was pretty good.

And the prize goes to ... Chow's in the Waterfront! (Which also has a delicious fried barramundi with caramelised salty sauce.) Laksa sausages sound good but the jury (me) is out on laksa cheesecake. Maybe, just maybe, the next time we get to the Trailer Boat Club I'll give it a try ...

https://laksafestival.nt.gov.au/