My comfort food

Because of the impending move of my office location, I'm feeling unhinged. And when I am stressed, I do one of 2 things; I either don't eat or I don't stop eating. Laksa or Pho is my comfort food I think because the herbs' fragrance exploding in my mouth, makes me feel exhilarated so this is what I made yesterday.1. If you have this handy at home -the soup base and a 6 oz can of coconut milk you can have laksa just as good if not better. When I make my Laksa, it is definitely better than Lion City, the only restaurant here in the Dallas area that serves Laksa. If you only follow the instruction on the bottle, you got a winner already but I add this 2: Belacan(shrimp paste cake) and fresh shrimp heads. After so many tries, I learned that this is the secret to a really outstanding Laksa. Simmer the shrimp heads for an hour( add the shrimp to the broth after you turn off the heat and you can use it as topping) and use it as broth instead of plain water. Break off about a tablespoon of belacan and stir it with the Laksa paste, add the shrimp broth, coco milk and let boil then simmer 5 minutes and turn off the heat. The belacan is not something you want to show to guests because it smells and looks like a dried up scraping from the sewage, but it makes all the difference in the taste. If you don't have it, just use fish sauce.



The soup gets better the next day, so just keep it in the refrigerator and only heat up however much you need then pour it over cooked rice noodles and whatever topping you want.
And this is a must have: Sriracha sauce and lime.