Last summer while interning in Sheung Wan, I explored the area every lunch hour trying to discover some hidden gems. Little did I know that the restaurants I "discovered" are already very renowned. One of which is Katong Laksa on Mercer Street, where even my favorite Canto actor Tony Leung has been seen slurping away a bowl of laksa. The entrance of the restaurant has newspaper clippings of all the raving reviews and pictures of celebrities who have visited. I came here yesterday with Anita (that's her in the photo!), who interns in Sheung Wan right now. Anita speaks with a jumbled-up accent from living in so many places, which somehow to me sounds very Singaporean, so it seemed appropriate to bring her to a South Asian restaurant.
I've been here three times already, and each time I couldn't finish the entire bowl. What I love most about laksa is the soup, the heavy coconut milk flavour in the mildly spicy soup. I also adore the tofu puffs that soak up all the soup. I'm not really a fan of the seafood in the noodles because it tastes a bit soggy.
The restaurant decor is very tropical with its orange walls that fit very nicely with the orange-colored soup. It's easy to imagine oneself in Malaysia in the moment. In Singapore, I was a huge fan of barley water, which is a ice-cold sweet drink that's supposed to lower the heat inside you. I'm never free of cankersores in my mouth, which I heard is from too much heat, so hopefully this drink will help. The table next to Anita and I ordered barley water right after us too! Toast Box, another Malaysian eatery also serves barley water too. Anita finished more of the l
aksa than I did, so props to her! It's not something I'd want to eat daily, and I certainly frequented the Chinese noodle shop next door much more often last summer. But the Hong Kong heat is unbearable, so why not imagine yourself in a tropical country? Hong Kong is 'sub-tropical' which totally should not count. The cheapest bowl of laksa is HKD40.Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng
