Pasar Ramadan – Kg Sg Penchala & TTDI

02 Sep 2009

Pasar Ramadan – Kg Sg Penchala & TTDI

Had some time to spent with my best and closest friend since childhood last weekend, and both of us being gluttons, bonding & ‘us’ time is naturally spent over a meal or MEALS.

In the spirit of Ramadan, she has decided to go on fast too, and both of us went Pasar Ramadan hopping in the vicinity of Kampung Sg Penchala and TTDI.

Pasar Ramadan Kampung Sg Penchala
GPS: N03. 09 683
E 101. 37 593

Roti Jala.
The proprietors here are a friendly lot and would happily obliged posing in mid-action of cooking or packing their wares.

For RM2.00, the chendol was a nice huge packet with thick fragrant gula melaka (palm sugar). The green wriggly jellies were toothsome and fresh too.

The murtabak is an ubiquitous item at every Ramadan bazaar, and the version here is swollen with generous filling of meat and egg, hence the snaking queue that guarantees a wait of minimum 20mins for one.

Ice cream ketam?? One certainly can’t accuse the proprietors of being boring.
Even the chicken skeleton is fried to a crisp frame and sold for RM3.00.

I had a hard time trying to curb my appetite with the fantastic visual feast before me.

My favourite, the kuih Akok from Kelantan, made from eggs, brown sugar and coconut milk. I couldn’t help trying one of the colourful “Kueh Peria”, which was basically thick glutinous rice skin wrapping sweet coconut flakes, green mung beans and peanuts.

The assiduous Man and his buddy, contactable at 017 615 9283 for his family secret recipe cheese tarts, of which I had the opportunity to staple one. Luscious and creamy, the bite sized cheese tarts are perfect gifts for Muslim friends.

The Kg Sg Penchala bazaar however, is small (with stalls numbering at perhaps, the most 40?) and therefore has pretty limited range of food (at least to gluttons like us).

So we hopped over to the next nearest bazaar we could think of…

Pasar Ramadan TTDI
GPS: N03. 08 441
E101. 37 709

Here, things were a little bit more interesting.

The “making of the peneram tradisional“.

And also the Sup Tulang stall, with its myriad of a cow’s parts in proud display. The mushrooms, wood fungus and vegetables somehow got me thinking of “bak kut teh”.

Then I watched wide-eyed as a couple was handed a plate with clippers. And they started to plunk items from the display onto the plate ala Yong Tau Foo style.
Wow, the revolution of Sup Tulang!

Once satisfied with your choices, hand over your plate to the proprietor, and your bag of Sup Tulang (or should I say Cow Kut Teh??) will be packed accordingly.
Since we can’t imagine slurping our hearty Sup Tulang with floating buttons mushrooms and celery sticks, we stuck to the good ole version of sup with beef fillets and briskets.

It turned out to be quite mild in flavour as the spices were very much toned down. Furthermore, it lacked the necessary ‘herbal’ flavours that such a dish demands. What happened to the complex, thick & aromatic soup tulang we know??

Next, HALAL dim sum and paus.

And fried rice with top marks for presentation. The same can’t be said for its taste though.

And of course, chicken, chicken and more chicken. Roasted, grilled, BBQ-ed, fried, curried … they even got a HALAL version of Uncle Bob’s fried chicken!

Another ubiquitous favourite, the ikan bakar stall. Strange that there were not that many stalls for this. We waited for over an hour for our stingrays, and it wasn’t even cooked through.

Wajik Durian!!
Sweet, pungent and gooey!!

There was, however, no lacking of stalls hawking rice; Nasi Melayu, fried rice, Nasi Tomato, Nasi Briyani…

And everything else…

Another interesting find, Sambal Tempoyak.
Durian with anchovies (ikan bilis) and petai. Do check out the youtube link!

I guess us Malaysians have got a soft spot for simple food. The longest queue was spied for these orbs of white, cottony snack.

After standing in queue for a good 40 minutes, I witnessed pretty much the repetition of the below.
Anti- clockwise from left:
Put one layer of the flour in each depression, top with about 1/2 tsp brown sugar, cover with more flour, press down, cover with a piece of muslin and steam for 15 minutes.

Once done, each are painstakingly lined with a piece of banana leaf before being packed in minimum set of 4 (RM2.00) . I liked the small ‘touch’ of lining it with the banana leaf, for the leaves impart a lingering fragrance when wrapped with the steaming hot putus.

Another simple food that commands another long queue. The fried and wet spring rolls by Pak Ya Popia Power!
Pak Ya himself stands at the front of the queue and cheerfully takes orders. The efficient workers churned out packs of freshly rolled spring rolls at his command. His booming shouts of “Next!!” assured the queue that their turn is soon!