This one's my personal favourite...Depot Road is famous for one thing:
Central Manpower Base and most guys would avoid the place like plaque because of the bad
memories of hopping onto a three-tonner truck. However, this one's a great reason
to get over that fear of trucks and third sergeants.
The shop is a little corner coffeeshop along the middle of depot road in a block of
flats just next to the food centre (see map). You'd practically have to wade your
way through the tables of people chomping up thick beehoon from claypots to place your
order. The first time our group of four went, we were fortunate enough to get there
about 11 am, just before the lunch crowd arrived.
Most sceptical in our group was Yeen Kiat, aka Jegher. He had never been a
"laksa person" but after this outing he was thoroughly converted. The
laksa came in HOT claypots, with LARGE prawns and THICK, TASTY curry gravy. That's
four out of four in the laksa final-exams for me. Need I say more?
Cockles laksa is also available for those who want it. Extra cockles will cost
you fifty cents more, but some people just can't live without it.
Servings were very generously sized, and claypots kept the curry hot while we sweated
away at our laksa. That's either a plus or a minus depending on which way you choose
to look at it. Finally, payday. $2.50 for a great pot of laksa. Things
never looked so good for us.
While we ate, the coffeeshop lady was totally amazed by our copy of the Makan Sutra which we refer to for some of our food spots. She
was happily showing it to this man (presumably her husband and coffeeshop owner) who
seemed none the more interested that his coffeeshop had attained international fame.
We had a hard time getting back our book before leaving, but from the broad grin on the
lady's face, it was worth it :).
- Yuen Ho
