Pasar Ramadhan

This time of the year, it tended to rain in the afternoons. And when I meant rain, I meant pouring down! That made trips to pasar ramadhan tricky. In fact, coupled with the herrendous traffic, it was no fun!

The nearest pasar ramadhan to our place was at Kerinchi, which happened to be on my route home. I stopped there last weak to look for some goodies, and I ended up with these fried crabs! Not exactly healthy, but oh my, aren’t they delicious!

The food there were reasonable but parking was tricky even though I was there super early. The murtabak stall were just about to open when I arrived, but the queue was at least 20 long! I decided to give that a miss since it had already started to rain. Only the hardcore stood in line!

Might drop by there during weekends when the traffic would be better though ...

Back to Melawati

Its a tradition for us. Every year, our local Pasar Ramadhan would be the one at Taman Melawati. Over the years it had gone through plenary of changes, in terms of location and appearance. It used to be in a large car park, four rows of shops, well spaced out. Plenty of stalls and food to choose from. A real go to spot when it came to shopping for berbuka.

For the last three years, the venue had changed and with that, the charm had disappeared. Many good stalls had decided to go elsewhere. My favourite drink joint was nowhere to be seen. What was left were pretty basic while some were downright mediocre.

I only went there because I was curious. Definitely not there because I wanted the food. And don't get me started about the traffic.

The new Pasar Ramadhan spot was located along one of the back row, on a smaller car park. Three rows of shops and parking meant leaving your car by the roadside of a busy main road. It was both a nightmare manouvering in and out of the place. Avenue you were late, forget it. You might end up in your car longer than the actual shopping.

I was there on the second day of Ramadhan. Definitely not a fan but if you must look for food for Berbuka, you may not have much of a choice.

At Keramat

Another Sunday, and another trip to Pasar Ramadhan in search for food of course. And again, we bought too much and would struggle to finish everything tonight.

The search today brought us to Keramat around AU2. It was a spur of the moment thing as we went there in the past years.

Part of nasi kerabu sauceYummy!

The place wasn't really big, just a row of stalls on the side of the road, but it has everything we were looking for.

The important couple of things for me was the drinks - more specifically a local fruit called "Air Mata Kuching" - and murtabak. Apparently the ones they had there were killers. Parking was straight forward as we were early, and the place was wide open compared to the cramped area around Melawati.

Smoky!This should be gorgeous!They are kinda colourfulDefinitely worth coming again but only only weekends as traffic were bad during weekdays.

Pasar Ramadan is Back

Yesterday was the first day of Ramadan for this year. And as usual, it also marked the return of food stalls at Pasar Ramadan. A quick fix that not just the Malays would enjoy.

We broke our fast - or as my more Arabinised friends wold call it performed iftar - at my in-law's place. And with that, Anita and I went out on a rampage at the local Pasar Ramadan at Melawati! Anita even collected her small change into her handbag for the occasion.

A drink with a twist ....They changed the layout of the market this time making it more compact, turning one of the carpark into 3 rows of stalls. I reckoned there were about 70 stalls all together, with great variety of food this time compared to the last.

We bought all the usual suspects, mostly from the same stall we had frequented over the years. But, the disappointing thing was our usual drinks vendor was not there. In fact, he wasn't there since last year. Another vendor which was missing was my favourite cucur udang stall. The alternatives - although plenty - were not as good.

After filling up both my hands with carry bags - should have brought with us a couple of shopping bags with us - we decided to call it the afternoon, although if she had had her way, there would be more!

Surprisingly, we finished most of the food yesterday, if not during berbuka, the left overs were gone by sahur. Idlan however asked for Nando's chicken for his breaking fast, so we had to stop by the mall to get that for him. Irfan wanted chicken rice. That was easy enough.

So, for the second day, we planned to eat out as the boys wanted chicken teriyaki for their berbuka. Plotting being done as we speak ....

Plaza Ramadan Winding Down

The plaza Ramadan which I went to earlier today - at Taman Melawati - was ready to pack up today. Only half of the stalls were opened. All of them saying that today would be their last day. They would be fetus ing to their respective kampungs from tonight.

I would definitely miss the drinks. Almost every time we had the chance to go over there, we would get some air mata kucing. Really hit the spot. The kuih there tensed to be lame, as I mentioned before.

Clearly some of the stalls were still going strongSo, not much take-out for tomorrow. Usually, we would be eating some food prepared for Raya on the evening before.

Anita had been preparing her rendang, plus there would be laksa and bolognese tomorrow. The boys, as usual would be up to no good. We bought some sparklers for then earlier but the quality wasn't that good. It was more smoke than fun. They got bored after a few minutes. Irfan had a bit if a burn on his leg as the debris from the sparkler kept hitting his feet. Painful stuff.