Ever since late last year, when Hot Thai Kitchen published a video about how approachable laksa broth could be to make at home, I started accumulating a very pathetic, paltry collection of shrimp heads in my freezer, which are being stored in a bag. But I would really love to make from-scratch laksa, by making my own laksa paste. It’s easier said than done, not just from time and effort, but from the mere sourcing of ingredients. Candle nuts are an authentic ingredient used in laksa; they are hard, if not impossible, to find in the U.S. Prawn/shrimp heads are a must for real laksa broth, and unfortunately, in U.S. food culture, while Americans love shrimp, they usually have them with no heads and barely any tails. The prawn heads are where all the flavor is to make a delicious laksa broth. So when we were in Springvale in the first week of our time in Melbourne, I was in the spice aisle at an Asian supermarket and came across some promising laksa pastes. I chose one (based on the ingredients list/least amount of preservatives) and decided I’d make laksa at some point during this trip. As we approached Christmas, I came up with this idea that I’d set up a laksa station on the day Chris’s parents hosted. They hosted today, on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas), so I decided to set up my station: I pre-cooked some cut up chicken thighs, blanched snake (long) beans, tofu puffs, fish balls/fish cakes, bean sprouts, and Hokkien wheat noodles. I omitted the prawns since I figured we’d have enough protein. For the broth, it was really simple and quick: I combined the laksa paste with water and coconut milk, boiled, then simmered. And that was it! As family came in, I ambushed them at the door to ask them if they wanted laksa. They came to my station to tell me which components they wanted, and then I made each bowl to order. It was definitely a different thing to do, since usually on Boxing Day, we have leftovers all re-heated and set up potluck style, but I thought this would be fun to mix things up.

And it seemed like in the end, it was a hit: even Chris’s cousin’s three sons, who are picky eaters, all ate some component of the laksa station. Two of them even said they liked the broth and didn’t find it too spicy. One of them ate my fish balls…. although slathered in ketchup. But you know what? I think it’s a win when a picky eater is willing to eat anything new for the first time. I also discovered some of Chris’s relatives’ eating neuroses: One of them has a slightly paranoid hatred of tofu in any form (he asked me three separate times to make sure that there was no tofu in his bowl) and has passed it down to his daughter, who greeted me with the same paranoia when I told her I had a bowl of tofu puffs. Another relative refuses to eat prawns, and when she found out the broth had shrimp paste, she said she wouldn’t eat it. Then, she subsequently told me excitedly that she is going to Vietnam with her husband, cousin, and cousin’s spouse in early January, but while this may be new and exciting, she’s terrified of eating the food (“No offense,” she insisted, knowing half my heritage is Vietnamese). “I just don’t like eating things that are unfamiliar!”

There is something about serving food to loved ones that always gets me excited. A bunch of relatives kept thanking me and saying it must have been a lot of work. But to me, a bunch of blanching, reheating a pre-made, store-bought laksa paste with some water and coconut milk, and a little stir-frying of chicken actually isn’t too much effort. Sure, it took time to set up everything, but all good things take some time. These are the times it’s yet another reality check to me that most of my from-scratch cooking isn’t done by most people of today; I’m truly an anomaly, even among people who love food. A cousin had exclaimed how amazing it was that I went to the effort to make laksa for the whole family, and to order, and I laughed it off, saying it wasn’t even from scratch; I used a pre-made paste! And he responded, “Oh, no — you don’t understand: in my household, that IS ‘homemade’! You don’t even want to know what we eat at our house most days!”

I may do another laksa station Down Under next year, or another made-to-order station in the same vein. I found this whole thing really fun! We’ll just need to tell people to make less food next year to prevent food waste.