Johor is the Malaysian state that gives its name to Johor laksa, a laksa variant served with spaghetti.
Johor laksa, also called Laksa Johor, comes from southern Malaysia and is unusual among laksa varieties because it uses wheat-based spaghetti rather than the thick rice noodles or rice vermicelli more commonly associated with the dish. The spaghetti is eaten with a rich, concentrated gravy and garnishes such as cucumber, bean sprouts, herbs, and sambal.
Its sauce traditionally features grilled wolf herring, known locally as ikan parang, together with coconut milk, onion, and a complex spice mixture. The fish-based gravy is thicker and more concentrated than many soup-style laksa preparations, giving the dish its distinctive character.
The distractors are plausible because Penang, Sarawak, and Perak all have important noodle dishes or laksa associations. Penang laksa is especially famous for its sour tamarind-based broth, while Sarawak laksa is known for a spice-rich soup with rice vermicelli. Neither is the spaghetti-based variant.