Apart from the food during festive occasions, there were a number of unforgetable sweets and desserts that could be bought from itinerant traders.
I fondly remember the sweets we used to eat. There was the 'Kok Kok Man'. He was called the Kok Kok man because of the sound of the instruments used to hack the sweets. The 'Kok-Kok' man who used to ply a large round tray of hard caramel sweet on his bicycle. The sweet was topped with sesame. He would use a small chisel-like instument and chisel out the amount of sweets we wanted - 5 cents worth or ten cents worth. The sweets would be put in wax paper and we would pick out the pieces to munch. 5 cents go a long way and I used to share the sweets with my brother. There was also the soft sticky caramel sweet (rolled in a stick - but we were forbidden to buy those). The 'Kok-Kok' man also sold salted marinated olives and mum sometimes asked me to help her buy the salted olives.
Another unforgetable eat was from the 'Kacang Putih' man. This Indian man usually made his round in the afternoon. He would have jars of beans, lentils and other fried stuff on a small wooden table and the table would be perched on his head. There were roasted chick peas, roasted peanuts, muruku, boiled chick peas, boiled peanuts and other Indian delicacies. The chick peas were the cheapest - 5 cents for one conical cone ( rolled from old newspapers). Hygiene was not an issue then!
Every now and then 'Putu Mayam' man would come to our village. He sold 'putu mayam' or rice string hoppers. The putu mayam were served on banana leaves. You had a choice of topping of either grated coconut with gula melaka or just curry. We always chose the grated coconut with gula melaka. He sold 'vadai' and puri bread too.
I can still remember the aroma of the satay that wafted from the satay man's itinerant stall. The satay man carried his wares on 2 baskets perched on the ends of a sturdy pole. One basket contained the satay sticks, the cucumber and onions, the ketupat and the satay sauce. The other basket would be the mobile stove, charcoal and some plates and nipah palm leaves (for wrapping takeaways). Some of his customers would squat near the stall as they eat the satay. To be honest, I had never bought anything from the satay man as the price of the satay was beyond my reach (10 to 15 cents). However, one or twice, my 2nd uncle would treat my brother and I to a stick of the satay. The taste was almost heavenly!!
Who could forget the cendol and ice kacang man? This vendor had a permanent stall at where the present roti canai man's stall in Sri Gading. In fact the cendol man was his great grandfather! 5 cents a glass of the creamy fragrant exilir! The ice kacang balls were shaved and shaped and generous amounts of red and green syrup would be poured onto the ice balls and then topped with evaporated milk. We held the cold ice balls with our bare hands. How quickly we slurped on these ice balls to prevent the ice melting away through our fingers!! It's a miracle that we did not develop stomach aches from eating these ices. I only stopped buying the cendol when a neighbour commented that the green globs were something from the vendor's nose!!
Then there was an auntie who faithfully hawked her delicious desserts everyday for afternoon tea. Her desserts varied from bubur cha cha to bubur kacang to bubur pulut hitam. Sometimes she served laksa and sometimes mee siam. Her mee siam was something to die for. Up to this day I cannot recreate her mee siam. She claimed to be related to my father and insisted that I address her as Gu-Gu. Thus I was given free desserts every now and then!
One of our Malay neighbours operated a stall that sold nasi lemak and mee siam. In the afternoon the old lady (whom we addressed as 'Awok') would sell fried bananas, fried sweet potatoes and mung bean patties. The piping hot banana fritters were served with her special sambal. Yum!!
It was not that we get to eat those sweets and desserts everyday. Sometimes an older sibling would buy the food and generously shared it with the rest of us. Sometimes we would hold on to our pocket money and waited anxiously for our favourite vendor to make his rounds. The memories of these childhood sweets and desserts still remain fondly in our minds.
It was not that we get to eat those sweets and desserts everyday. Sometimes an older sibling would buy the food and generously shared it with the rest of us. Sometimes we would hold on to our pocket money and waited anxiously for our favourite vendor to make his rounds. The memories of these childhood sweets and desserts still remain fondly in our minds.
No comments:
Post a Comment