The Tail End

It was coming to the end of Ramadhan, and some of the city dwellers had started their journey back to kampung. This was certainly helped by the fact that Raya would be in the middle of the week, and the school would be closed the whole week. People can travel from one weekend to the next and the weekend had started.

Most of the stalls at pasar Ramadhan had started to close and we were already making plans to return to Gombak, buying groceries and started decorating. Anita had finalised her menu for Raya day itself as a few of our friends had planned to come.

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 ....

Bazaar Time

I made no qualms that one of the attraction of Ramadan was the food. I ended up probably eating more than usual although I was meant to be fasting. One of the main culprit was the Ramadan Bazaar. And they cropped up everywhere.

On the first day of Ramadan - I was on leave that day, I visited a bazaar at Taman Melawati, which I frequently did every year. It was a smaller affair this year even compared to the scaled down edition of last year. Disappointing choice, although the essentials were still there.

It looked ugly, but tasted good!And of course the drinksWe grabbed the usual murtabak and drinks among others. Had a quick walk around. All looked good although they often tasted not as nice. We tended to find that out the hard way.

I might not be able to enjoy the bazaar as much as I did in the previous years, due to work schedule. Maybe that's the reason the bazaar had lost its charm. ‎