Hawker Sells $6 Blood Cockles-Only Laksa With Nothing But ‘Hums’
We counted 24 ‘hums’ in our laksa, which, other than blood cockles, came with only thick bee hoon, gravy and optional taugeh.
Most of the metallic-tasting bivalves consumed in Singapore are imported from Malaysia, but pollution and overfishing have led to a drastic drop in supply. Which explains why hawkers who use hums in their cooking are now charging more for a portion, or have completely omitted it.
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All-hum laksa
Not Guang Fa Laksa, though. This popular laksa stall at Havelock Road Food Centre offers an Only Cockles Laksa ($6/$7), which, from its photo on the signboard, comes with cockles, beansprouts, thick bee hoon and gravy. Yep, no tau pok, no fishcake, no hard-boiled egg. Just hums.
24 ‘hums’ in our laksa
We asked for no taugeh in our laksa, which leaves us with just blood cockles and finely-chopped laksa leaves for toppings.
After some intense counting, we found 24 super plump hums in our $6 bowl. Very generous, as we usually get barely five or six tiny cockles even after topping up $2 for hums at laksa stalls. A regular $4 bowl of laksa at Guang Fa comes with around five cockles.
Nice or not?
Now, this stall has gotten rave reviews online for its robust gravy, but during our visit, we found ours too watery and bland even after stirring in the accompanying spoonful of sambal.
That said, we prefer our laksa gravy thick and rich (like 928 Yishun Laksa’s version), and there were other Guang Fa customers slurping up their bowl of laksa with obvious enjoyment. If you like Tanglin Halt hawker stall Wei Yi Laksa or Alexandra Village's Depot Road Zhen Shan Mei Laksa, which have lighter gravy, you might enjoy Guang Fa Laksa.
Is there such a thing as too many hums?
When we first tucked into our cockles-only laksa, we were tingling with excitement. Here was a dream come true — there were so many ‘hums’ that they filled up half the bowl surface. For the first half of our meal, we were in heaven. But after making our way through the bowl, the distinctive metallic flavour of the cockles started to get to us, even though they were cooked through and not raw or bloody.
“See lah, the regular bowl is better,” remarked our dining companion. We see the point; there’s a mix of ingredients in the regular laksa, like puffy laksa gravy-soaked tau pok, strips of springy fishcake and crunchy beansprouts, which makes a good balance. So unless you can tahan the metallic taste of a lot of blood cockles, we recommend that you eat in moderation.
Guang Fa Laksa is at #01-08 Havelock Road Cooked Food Centre, 22A Havelock Rd, S161022. Open daily except Wed & Sun, 8am-1.30pm or till sold out.
Photos: Yip Jieying
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