The SS2 market

Photographs taken during a walk around the SS2 market in Petaling Jaya. Operating under the shelter of parasols and tarpaulins, the market is  one of only a handful of open air wet markets in Petaling Jaya.

 

 

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The Coney Dog makes a return?

So, there is will no longer be a need to make a trip across the Causeway (or the Second Link) to satisfy one’s craving for root beer and Coney Dogs come 2018 if this report on Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore on the return of A&W is to be believed. The first fast food restaurant to set up shop here – a little more than a decade before McDonald’s took Singapore by storm, it made an exit after 35 years in 2003. Its first outlet, modelled after a Wild, Wild West style salon, opened at MSA (later SIA) Building in 1968. That was followed by its somewhat iconic drive-in over the canal and along what became known as the “Floral Mile” at Dunearn Road in 1970.

We miss A&W Root Beers served in chilled mugs here in Singapore.

It was through a visit to the drive-in in the early 1970s that I got my introduction to American style fast food, served in typical American drive-in style at the Dunearn Road outlet. That was a treat. A meal of burgers, fries and root beer was relatively expensive in days when one could get a hawker meal for a little more than a dollar. I wouldn’t become a regular visitor to A&W until I was in Secondary school. That was only because Tuesdays, days on which technical lessons at McNair Road in the mornings required me to have lunch out, were also Coney Days when Coney Dogs went for a steal. This made the visits a lot more affaordable.

The A&W Restaurant I frequented during my schooldays at Dhoby Ghaut (Alison Emery on Facebook).

A&W first appeared in the region way back in 1963 with an outlet at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman in Kuala Lumpur. That was followed by a drive-in – the first in the region at Taman Jaya in Petaling Jaya in 1967 (which is still in operation, albeit no longer as a drive-in). The drive-in in Singapore closed in 1986, when it made way for a canal widening exercise. The chain in Singapore, despite an expansion exercise in the 1980s, was not able to compete with the big names in fast-food and in 2001, closed seven of its twelve outlets when the last franchise holder in Singapore, KUB Holdings of Malaysia, took over. Huge losses, estimated at 1.5 million dollars, saw to the complete pullout of A&W in 2003. Its last outlet was the one at the airport. More on A&W and its first drive-in can be found at The first drive-in in Malaysia and Singapore.

The drive-in at Dunearn Road.

The first drive-in in the region at Taman Jaya in Petaling Jaya.

The  Taman Jaya outlet in more recent times.

 

The wet market at SS2 Petaling Jaya

Wet markets in Singapore, although still very interesting and colourful, do pale in comparison to the wet markets found around much of Asia. Wet markets are very often, around where life in the community it serves revolves. It is often where, when on the road, I would try to visit to provide me with a sense of a place and its people. I managed a visit to two markets during a recent trip across the Causeway, not perhaps to give me a feel of the place, but more to remind me of how we in Singapore used to be.

A “carrot cake” vendor – markets are always where a burst of colour can be found.

A fishmonger.

One of the markets I visited, a very popular one at Sea Park in SS2 Petaling Jaya,  is an open air market – its hawkers operating under colourful shelters of large parasols and tarpaulins, is perhaps reminiscent of some of the street markets which once did exist on the streets of Singapore, minus perhaps the smell one never failed to catch a whiff of.

The SS2 wet market is reminiscent of the street markets found on the old streets of Singapore.

A dry goods vendor.

The market, as many in Asia, is also where live produce is sold – clucking and quacking poultry, wriggling eels and frogs in cages a common sight. A sight that is not for the faint hearted is the sight of the frog vendor skinning frogs alive.

Live frogs on sale.

The market does perhaps lack the disorder of the street markets of old – licensed hawker stalls are organised in sections depending on what they sold and orderly queues forming at the popular ones have increasingly become a common sight, although there were a few where the crowd seemed to be in the disordered order that would once have been commonplace.

A poultry seller with freshly slaughtered chickens and ducks on offer.

A cooked food section next to a dry sundry section.

In my wanderings around wet markets in Singapore and Malaysia, I often look for specific reminders of the wet markets I do remember. One trade which did fascinate me when I was young was the Indian wet rempah (spice paste) mixer, who would get to work mixing a paste made of some of the colourful array of pasty spice arranged around him or her, depending on what the customer related as to what he/she wanted to prepare. That I have not thus far been successful in locating, although I have come across a few spice powder mixers around. One Chinese vendor in the SS2 market did come close, she did have in addition to the colourful selection of dry powdered spices, have a few pre-mixed pastes of wet spice on offer.

The rempah vendor at SS2.

Bamboo pau (steamed buns) steamers.

Walking around I did catch a glimpse of a sight which did always catch my eye as a child – the preparation of dough fritters. Although this can still be observed in Singapore, the cubicles our market hawkers now operate in are opened to prying eyes only from one end and it is hard to observe the preparation in the same way I would have as that wide-eyed boy.

Preparing the dough for making dough fritters (You Tiao or U Char Kway)  – one other sight which did fascinate me as a child was the how dough fritters would be prepared and fried.

Cutting the dough.

Deep frying the dough in hot oil.

Nicely browned dough fritters almost ready to be drained and sold.

It is perhaps a matter of time before wet markets in Malaysia, as they are in SS2, fall victim to progress as many such markets in Singapore have. Until that time, however, they will be there for some of us in Singapore to remember how life for us might once been.

The first drive-in in Malaysia and Singapore

For many of my generation, the very first encounters with American style fast-food would have probably consisted of root beers, hamburgers, fries and hotdogs at one of two A&W restaurants present in Singapore – at least mine was. That was at the drive-in at Dunearn Road, straddling the Bukit Timah canal close to the University of Singapore, which my parents brought my sister and me to for a treat (fast-food was relatively expensive in those days). It was also my one and only drive-in dining experience for which I remember the ice-cream that came at the end of the treat more than anything else.

A&W would have given the first American fast-food experience to many of my generation.

Drive-in restaurants, or drive-ins were huge in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. The arrival of Singapore’s first – the A&W at Dunearn Road in 1970, two years after the first A&W outlet opened at the MSA Building (later SIA Building) in 1968, came at the end of a decade when we were to receive much greater exposure to American popular culture, of which both fast-food and drive-ins were very much a representation of, through the introduction of television (introduced to Singapore in 1963).

For some of us, nothing comes close to having a root beer at A&W in a mug chilled in a freezer.

While the A&W outlet was the first drive-in in Singapore, it wasn’t the first drive-in to come to this part of the world. That distinction lies with the A&W drive-in that opened in Petaling Jaya, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur in neighbouring Malaysia, in 1967 – four years after the first A&W outlet opened its doors at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman in the Malaysian capital. The drive-in, which incidentally is still operating (although not as a drive-in), is one I have long familiar with. I would probably have developed an impression of it from one of the many driving trips I made in the back of my father’s car to the “Federation” – as my father often referred to Malaysia, as it was close to Shah’s Hotel – another long time landmark in the Taman Jaya area where the drive-in is located.

The first drive-in restaurant in Malaysia and Singapore – the A&W at Taman Jaya in Petaling Jaya, which is still operating (albeit not as a drive-in).

The hot and humid climate we do get in Malaysia and Singapore was possibly a reason that the popularity of the drive-in, a feature of life of American suburbia, did not really take-off. A few more drive-ins did appear on both sides of the Causeway over the years, including one that opened at Kallang near the stadium (where the cluster of fast-food restaurants is today) in 1978 – around the time I was chasing Coney Dogs, Root Beers and A&W straws at their outlet in Dhoby Ghaut close to Cathay. Sadly for us in Singapore who do have memories of drive-ins and first fast-food experiences at A&W restaurants, both have disappeared. The drive-in at Kallang was converted not long after it opened to a sit-in only restaurant. The original A&W drive-in closed in 1986, making way for a canal widening exercise. The restaurant itself, despite its ambitious expansion in the 1980s, could not compete with the big names in fast-food, who by the 1980s, had established themselves in Singapore. In 2001, it closed seven of its twelve outlets, when the last franchise holder in Singapore, KUB Holdings of Malaysia, took over. With losses amounting to an estimated 1.5 million dollars, KUB decided to shut A&W’s operations on the island in 2003, with the last outlet to be shut being the one at the airport. With that, the only way we in Singapore could get that root beer fix was across the Causeway. Looking at the state of the outlets in Malaysia, it doesn’t look that there is much time left for us to do that – and with it, the days of the Root Beer and Coney Dog (now in its 50th year) and more recently introduced A&W offerings such as the waffle and curly fries, will soon be days which have passed.

The good food guide: the Garmin-Asus Navigation Smart Phone

This review of the use of a Garmin-Asus A10 Navigation Smartphone has been written in conjunction with a Garmin-Asus blogger voting contest. You can help me win a Garmin-Asus A15 Navigation Smartphone by voting for me at this page for this post can be found at this page (click on this link). Voters will receive a S$50 Garmin-Asus voucher from Starhub. More information on the two phones can be found at this link. Voting ends on 21 Feb 2011.

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Armed with this wonderful little gadget which I got to use for a couple of weeks, the usage of which coincided with a recent trip I made across the Causeway, I decided to try to make the most of it. On my previous drives to Malaysia, even with a few month under the belt working in one of the northern states which provided me with the freedom to roam around the remaining states of Peninsula Malaysia that I had hitherto not set foot on, and trips on an annual basis (since my father took me on the long and winding drives along the old trunk road in the 1970s) – save for breaks when I was away from this part of the world, I had not really dared to venture much, particularly in some of the bigger towns and cities. This reluctance to venture I guess stems from my father’s own experience trying to make sense of the evolving Jalan Sehala (One-Way Street) system in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, where all roads seem to have led to the roundabout known as Edinburgh Circle, and it was only after many attempts each time, that we would find ourselves on Jalan Bukit Bintang, off which we would usually look for accommodation. This time around, with a handy little Android phone, the Garmin Asus A10, which was equipped with a Garmin GPS, I could, I thought to myself, overcome this reluctance and be a little brave in looking for some places I would otherwise get lost going to.

The Garmin-Asus A10 Android GPS Phone.

On the road to Kuala Lumpur ... a perfect excuse to try a GPS enabled Android phone out ...

The first GPS adventure started with a drive from Kuala Lumpur to the Lost World of Tambun, close to the city of Ipoh. In attempting to drive, forgetting that the exit system off the North-South Highway around Ipoh had changed since I last visited, I somehow missed a turning off the highway, and ended incurring an additional hour of grumbling from the backseat, having to drive up the mountains to Kuala Kangsar, before having to turn back. It was then that I decided to call on the GPS, which I should really have done earlier, and with the GPS promptly finding where I was, I was directed with accurate voice instructions (albeit with pronunciations that may take a little getting used to) to the Lost World that had indeed been lost to me (the Lost World of Tambun is a water themed park, run by the Sunway group, probably built around some of the mining pools that are found around Ipoh and is worth a visit for the hot spring water that is piped up into pools and even a jacuzzi). One of the features of the A10’s GPS is the junction view which provides a visual on the screen of the junction you are asked to turn off at, making it easily recognisable.

The Garmin-Asus A10 proved to be an able navigator.

Getting lost looking for a Lost World (of Tambun) - I should have relied on the GPS rather than follow my instincts.

Having discovered how useful the GPS could be I decided to abandon my instincts and rely totally on the GPS for the next part of the journey into Ipoh, and the GPS guided me, without hiccups to my destination, a hotel along Jalan Raja Dr Nazrin Shah, an area that I wasn’t familiar with. Emboldened, I decided to drive next into the old town for dinner (not that Ipoh is difficult to find one’s way around), first looking up and then setting places to eat in Ipoh that had been recommended to me by a friend who was a long time resident … I was begining to have fun with the gadget. Mmm … first up was the street where the two famous chicken rice and bean sprout restaurants were …

The GPS proved an able navigator in my search for good food starting with Chicken Rice and Bean Sprouts in Ipoh.

Ipoh is well known for its steamed chicken ... which I easily navigated to with the help of the A10 ...

and ... crunchy bean sprouts ...

I guess finding my way to an area that I was more or less familiar with from my previous gluttonous excursions into Ipoh for food wasn’t going to be difficult, but I was impressed with the efficiency in which the GPS got me there! Yes, this was indeed going to be fun, and I was determined to make the most out of the GPS, and waking up early the very next morning, I set off on two quests. One was to find my way to the architectural masterpiece in the form of the Ipoh Railway Station that a turn of the 20th Century architect, Arthur Benison Hubback had left, together with the Ipoh Town Hall, the other was to find my way to some of what I was told was the best food in town. At the same time, I thought of trying the A10’s pedestrian-friendly navigation features on my walk around old Ipoh – not that it was difficult to do that, but I also needed to find my way to the eventual reward of the smoothest “Sar Hor Fun” that I have tasted at 75 Leech Street as well and the A10 again got me there without much of a fuss.

The A10 proved to be an able navigator in my search for A. B. Hubback's masterpiece, the Ipoh Town Hall and my wanderings around the streets of old Ipoh.

The very satisfying bowl of "Sar Hor Fun" that the A10 led me to.

After the Sar Hor Fun, the next thing to look forward to was the Dim Sum … and again with the help of the A10, I was able to find and set the destination from the hotel and find Dim Sum Street or Jalan Leong Sin Nam with ease. It is on this street that some of the best Dim Sum can be found and I found the restaurant that I was recommended, Ming Court, without fuss … where some of the best Dim Sum I’ve tasted was soon piled on the table.

Ming Court (as with Foh San) offers tasty treats of dim sum in Ipoh, and I found it with ease using the A10.

I found myself back in Kuala Lumpur, a two hour drive south to welcome in the new year, and not satisfied with my food adventures around Ipoh when there was this little place called Uma in some obscure corner of Kota Damansara which I heard served some of the best Balinese cuisine in the Klang Valley that I wanted to find. So the very next evening, out pops the A10, in goes the destination, into the car I go, and once again without fuss I arrived at this quiet restaurant (which I would talk about in another post) … and was treated to a really sumptuous meal of Nasi Ratus ….and a glass of the Indonesian version of Bandung, made with a (happy) tang by adding soda water, called Soda Gembira!

A soda to make one happy, Soda Gembira, the Indonesian version of Bandung (rose syrup and milk) with soda water.

The Kambing Mekuah (Balinese Lamb Curry) Nasi Ratus, served with yellow rice, which I had at Uma.

That was really the icing on the cake, and I guess it may be fortunate that I do not have the A10 on a permanent basis (or have the opportunity arriving back only in the first week of January to try the A50 out) … the ease with which I found all that great food in Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur, might mean I would be doing the same in Singapore and it won’t be long before I have to look into changing my wardrobe … or maybe you could help corce me into a new set of clothes … by voting for me so that I can win a Garmin ASUS A50 phone. More information on the two phones can be found at this link.