WITH the cost of goods rising these days, it is not surprising to see vendors upping their prices, especially taking into consideration the other factors that go into making their products.
A woman was recently irked by an interaction between a Johor laksa seller and a customer who wanted to order their wares for 15 people but complained about the expensive pricing.
In the screenshot, it was shown that the customer complained about the seller’s RM150 quotation and said that they set their burget at RM5 per head for the Johor laksa.
In a post by Rusyainie Ramli on Facebook, she explained how making the dish itself is a labour-intensive and costly process.
“I get really mad if I hear others underestimate how difficult traditional Malay cooking like Johor laksa is. It is not easy making this dish.
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“Johor laksa being complicated to make is one thing. Do not play around when it comes to the capital costs involved in making the dish” she said in her post.
From the ingredients to the amount of preparation needed to prepare the dish, Rusyainie explained that the star ingredient of the dish, mackerel fish was already a hard ingredient to obtain and also an expensive one already.
Not only that, it is difficult to de-bone the fish after boiling for the noodle broth and blending the fish as the bones are hard to chew on, hence the broth must be strained several times.
Not only that, the other ingredients such as dried shrimp, small shrimp, salted threadfin fish, onions, kerisik, coconut milk and curry powder and also other ingredients not listed in her post, together with a “sufficient amount of cooking oil.”
She also mentioned that Laksa Johor uses spaghetti noodles which is also costs more than other noodles like yellow noodles typically used for broth-based noodle dishes.
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“The gravy must be cooked at least for two hours until the oil has split, then the broth will be delicious.
“Did you think that gas and electricity was free? I have to keep my smoke inhaler the whole time I am cooking. This is excluding the cost of the air conditioner if it was at my kitchen.
“If one insists on spending RM5 for a plate, please make it yourself instead. RM5 a plate will not even pass the cost (of making it),” she added.
