These New Yorkers of M’sian Descent Are Bringing Laksa to NYC

Last year, we wrote about the Australian city Darwin which is so obsessed with laksa that they have a festival for it. Over in New York City (NYC), not many locals know about curry laksa or even Malaysian cuisine, but this duo of Malaysian descent is hoping to change that.

Cassandra Lam and Lizzy Singh-Brar started The Laksa Shop project in October 2022, a pop-up stall which churns out steaming bowls of yummy curry laksa to bring a taste of Malaysia to the States. Since their launch, they usually have two pop-ups each weekend at breweries. We spoke to Cassandra to find out more about her roots, their stall, and how they got started.

Going Back to Her Roots

While Cassandra was born and raised in New York, her dad is from Hong Kong while her mother hails from Ulu Yam, Selangor. Meanwhile, Lizzy was born and raised in Australia but has a Malaysian-Indian father and a Polish mother. The Laksa Shop is in fact a spin-off from Mama Lam’s curry paste and hot sauce packaged goods brand, a small mother-daughter business.

“There's not much Malaysian food here in NYC, and there was way less when my mother moved here in the 1980s. Feeling homesick, especially for her native cuisine, she decided that she needed to learn how to make it herself and called her mum (my grandmother) for the recipe. My sister commented that our mum should be selling her dishes back in NYC,” said Cassandra. Fast forward, Mama Lam’s has been Cassandra and her mother’s full-time gig for seven years.

Mama Lam’s parents and 8 other siblings were still living in Malaysia when she immigrated to NYC, Cassandra would go back to visit family every two years. “I’m really glad my mum brought me and my sister back to Malaysia often because a lot of other American-born Malaysians only go back once every 5 or 10 years,” she said. “Going back every couple of years allowed me to understand the culture and food. While I'm not personally from there, I do take great pride in my Malaysian heritage and loved being able to introduce people to this place that I'm so connected to.”

A Chance Encounter

Curry Laksa is the first dish that Cassandra craves every time she visits Malaysia, but it is not readily available in NYC. “While selling our Mama Lam’s products, I began to realise that I wasn’t the only person acknowledging the laksa void in NYC, as customers would tell us how much they missed the dish from their time growing up in, living in, or visiting Malaysia and Singapore.”

Without any restaurant background, this wasn’t a venture Cassandra was prepared to tackle, so the idea just sat in the back of her mind. That is, until she met Lizzy.

“I actually love the story about how our partnership came to be. My mom and I have been producing Mama Lam’s paste out of a commissary kitchen since we launched the business. One day, we're in there, cooking the curry down to its paste form, and I hear this unfamiliar Australian accent yelling out "Oh my, what is that delicious smell?".

“I explained to this chef (Lizzy) how it's my mom's Malaysian curry and we package and sell it around the city. Lizzy then responded, saying how she'd bought our product at a farmer's market and had used it to make Curry Laksa at home, which she missed from growing up in Australia as a half Malaysian, which I wasn’t aware of at the time. After getting to know her a bit, I approached her with my idea for The Laksa Shop concept, and she was immediately on board.”

Lizzy has been cooking in NYC restaurants since the early 2000s. A former contestant of American reality cooking TV game show Chopped and a restaurant owner, Lizzy currently works as a private chef and the Head Chef for The Laksa Shop.

What Goes in Each Bowl?

Cassandra admits that their curry laksa (or curry mee) “is not going to be the same as what you'll find in KL or around Malaysia, as some adjustments are made based on personal preference and/or ingredients available to us here in the States.” The price ranges from $13-$18 per bowl, “obviously a far cry from what you can get a bowl for back in Malaysia.”

The broth is prepared ahead of time in larger batches and kept frozen until use. Cassandra and Mama Lam spend hours cooking the stock before turning it into curry laksa soup. Their main curry laksa is a chicken and shrimp stock cooked with chicken feet, bones, and shrimp shells. They also carry a vegetarian curry laksa made of a shiitake mushroom and miso stock.

Ingredients such as lemongrass, coconut milk, and shrimp paste are imported from Southeast Asia while other ingredients such as chicken and shrimp are sourced from the U.S.

Speaking of the spiciness scale, she said, “On a Malaysian scale, it’s probably around a 3 out of 10. For the people who want it spicier, we offer a side of Mama Lam’s hot sauce to give it some extra kick.”

Cassandra went on to say, “However, if there are ingredients that are fresh, taste great with the laksa and are cost-effective, we will include them in the laksa. We need to remain flexible and are well aware that we won’t be able to always maintain full authenticity to how it’s done back in Malaysia.” You gotta give props to her for her honesty as not all Malaysian F&B outlets will do the same.

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Do Americans Know About Malaysian Food?

Cassandra also tell us that unfortunately, the awareness of Malaysian cuisine is very low in New York. “There are only about 15 Malaysian restaurants in the entire city. Most don’t last and end up closing shop after just a few years. Meanwhile, there's a Thai restaurant on every block. With that said, there still has been a noticeable increase in awareness of Malaysian cuisine since we first started, and I'm not saying it's because of us. It's definitely due to the increased travel of Americans to KL. I'm hoping we can see its popularity take off here in NYC these next few years!”

What’s Next for The Laksa Shop?

Cassandra shares their big goal for 2024 is to open a physical store and to expand the menu to include Asam and Sarawak Laksa. “I'd really like to do a more traditional Curry Laksa with siham (cockles), but that's hard to do here since they're so expensive in NY. Beyond laksa, I could see us doing sides like curry puffs or roti canai, but don't think we'd branch out much further than that. I'm a believer in keeping a limited menu focused on making a few dishes as well as you can, similar to how it's done at the hawker stalls in Malaysia.”

She quipped, “I just hope someone here in NYC is planning to launch a quality Char Koay Teow and Char Koay Kak business next!”

Cassandra ended by saying, “Looking further ahead, the long-term goal remains what it's been since 2017, and that's been to help bring the delicious Malaysian flavours to NYC, helping to raise the awareness of this criminally underappreciated cuisine!”

We think so too and hope their store will do well! Malaysia boleh!

Follow The Laksa Shop on Instagram or visit their website. Follow Mama Lam’s on Instagram or visit their website here.