[Food] Janggut Laksa - THE Original Katong Laksa

 

Janggut Laksa - What a name to call your laksa stall. When you say that someone has a janggut, it means that he must have kept a beard of good length. I'd thus imagine that the original stall owner, the late Mr Ng Juat Swee, must be a keeper of a beard. But seemingly, it was far from the truth.

The name "Janggut" came about because Mr Ng, who was known as the original laksa man from Katong, "had a few strands of hair coming out from a mole on his left chin". (1) 

Mole hair = Janggut? The sense of humour that the people of the 1950s had. Let's move on. Mr Ng started selling laksa in the 1950s and he had carted his noodles and laksa gravy using a tricycle. (1) 

The original Junggut Laksa was previously located at 49, East Coast Road.
Picture taken from google maps. (2)

By 1963, Mr Ng started selling his brand of laksa at the Sunday market and finally, rented a stall space at No. 49, East Coast Road. (3)  Ironically, it's fiercest competitor 328 Katong Laksa has taken over their spiritual home.

Janggut Laksa's small kitchen space

The main stall is now located at Queenway Shopping Centre and really, one does not associate the shopping centre with food. Locals and tourists alike visit this shopping centre to buy discounted sports shoes and gears. Moreover, Janggut Laksa is now a kiosk with nondescript long orange tables and plastic chairs. They have a branch that is located at Roxy Square in Marine Parade.

Singapore's famous food blogger of the ieat.ishoot.ipost, Dr Leslie Tay has given this laksa a rating of 4.5 over 5. (4)

Full house even on weekdays

Not only does it tastes nice, the laksa noodles are easily slurp-able as it has been cur to shorter stands and thus, only spoons are used. I'd say that I agree with the rating though in truth, I'm not a food blogger. So I'll keep to the historic of this traditional laksa dish and let the food gurus share about how lemak (rich) is the laksa gravy. 

Address:

Main - 1 Queensway, Queensway Shopping Centre #01-59 Singapore 149053

Branch - 50 East Coast Road, Roxy Square #01-64 Singapore 428769

References

1. Junggut's laksa legacy. November 7, 1999. The Straits Times. P7. 

2. Google Map. Accessed on November 11, 2014.

3. Khoo, H. Yusof, Z. M. & Chan, C. September 20, 2009. No shane say popular S'pore food stalls.  The New Paper.

4. i eat i shoot i post. http://ieatishootipost.sg/janggut-laksa-the-katong-laksa-story-part-ii/. Accessed on November 11, 2014.