A DISTINCTIVE spice paste melted into chicken broth and coconut milk forms the base of the Sarawak laksa, which comes with rice vermicelli, or beehoon. The soup gets its sour nuance from tamarind and is embellished with shredded chicken breast meat, whole prawns and omelette strips.

It is this version that is served at Lin Li Xiang, a neighbourhood restaurant in Damansara Jaya. It’s not an in-your-face kind of laksa, but a finer rendition that makes you come back for more.

I have been back twice for the delicious Sarawak laksa (RM12.90) that packs oomph once the sambal and calamansi juice are added. I actually drank up half the curry as I liked it so much. Other Sarawak noodles on the menu are kolo mee and tomato mee, to go with drinks like the three-layer.

I was refreshed by the icy layered concoction (RM4.90) which has gula apong, or palm sugar, at the bottom, milk in the middle, and tea on top. Stirred to mix, the tea is ideally sweet.

I discovered a good, aromatic coffee (RM4.60) here too, brewed with ground coffee beans from Sarawak.

Kolo mee (RM8.90) is fine egg noodles topped with a minced pork sauce, char siu, fish cake slices, fish ball and pork ball. We thought the noodles were overcooked as they were soft and floury. We would have preferred firmer noodles with the minced pork.

Deep-frying turned the same egg noodles crispy in tomato mee (RM10.90).  The noodles sit in a lightly sweet and tangy tomato sauce, finished with choysam, fish balls, pork balls, slices of fish cake, chicken liver and gizzard.

The noodles crunch at each bite, covered with the yummy sauce which I slurped up. The liver and gizzard went so well with the noodles. I liked the springy fish balls and the flavourful pork balls too.

We had a side dish of soup kiaw (RM7.90), a kind of wantan filled with minced pork. They were a little bland. The HKR roll (RM9.90), a spiced meat roll or lobak wrapped in soy skin and deep-fried, tasted good with the bowl of crunchy, pickled cabbage and a sweet chilli sauce it came with.

My friends from Johor and Singapore go crazy at the mention of tau suan (RM3.50), a sweet soup of split mung beans finished with a little potato starch and eaten with yu tiao, or Chinese cruellers. It’s supposed to warm your stomach and get rid of “heatiness”. I certainly liked it more with the crunchy yu tiao.

Lin Li Xiang offers some homemade dishes to go with rice, such as assam chicken (RM10.90), black bean pork ribs soup (RM13.90), pig’s stomach pepper soup with pork tail (RM13.90) and Hakka pork leg (RM10.90).

The restaurant opens from 7.30am to 4pm daily except Monday. Lin Li Xiang is at 93-G Jalan SS22/11, Damansara Jaya, 47400 Petaling Jaya, tel: 03 7733 6693. – November 21, 2020. 

* Eu Hooi-Khaw has been writing about food for the longest time, covering all aspects, from restaurant reviews to cooking and recipes, as well as the healthy side of it. She has written for major newspapers and magazines, published the cookbook Fresh Ingredients, and also writes for her website hooikhawandsu.com.