Every year during the holy Muslim fasting month, Ramadan Bazaars are set up in various locations (esp close to housing areas) offering buka puasa (breaking of fast) fare. Ramadan Bazaars are worth visiting if you can find the time. Soak up the many sights and smells of the local specialties you can find there.
We visited our first Ramadan bazaar in Taman Len Sen yesterday. There are about 30 stalls, and the place started to fill up by 5pm. My mum loves lemang and rendang hence we targeted this bazaar since we saw lemang on sale here last year (another bazaar we visited last year didnt have lemang). We walked the whole length of the bazaar and was starting to panic because we couldn't see any lemang.... then towards end of the stretch, we found an aunty selling them. Hooray!
Lemang is a traditional Malay food made of glutinous rice and coconut milk, and then cooked in a hollowed bamboo stick lined with banana leaves over a charcoal fire. The aunty was also selling chicken or beef rendang to go with the lemang. The beef rendang looked mouthwatering, so we got a tub of it and 2 lemang to go. Both the lemang and rendang were fabulous, the best thing we selected out of this bazaar.
Chicken rendang
Beef rendang
Lemang
We found the usual bazaar fares here such as kuih, rojak, popiah, ikan bakar, chicken wings, ayam percik, colorful drinks, satay, roti john, and murtabak. There were at least 5 stalls selling murtabak.. some heavy competition going on here. We tried the mutton, beef and chicken satays; there were decent though they would have been nicer if they were still warm. My favorite kuih from this bazaar was the kuih tepung pelita, I alone ate 3 of them! Ayam percik here was sold in portions, rather than a whole chicken, which is a good idea in my opinion, since we always struggle to finish a whole chicken on top of the other fares. I was a little miffed that the sellers were reluctant to sell only cucur udang to me, since I did not like the tofu and other stuff in the rojak. One thing I noticed was that many stalls did not have price signs up here.
I do enjoy visiting the Ramadan bazaars every year since this is one of the times of the year whereby I get to enjoy many local delicacies. Hopefully the weather will be a little kinder in the next few weeks and I get to visit a few more Ramadan bazaars. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish my Muslim readers, Selamat Berpuasa!
An assortment of kuihs (traditional Malay cakes)
Rojak
Colorful drinks
Ayam percik
Ikan bakar
Satay galore
More satay
Beef potato and chicken potato samosa
Chicken, beef, and mutton satay
Delicious beef rendang
Lemang to go with the beef rendang
Ayam percik
Kuih
Kuih tepung pelita.. cun!
Our haul from our first Ramadan bazaar of 2011
A cendol drink to cool us down
For the full set of photos, please visit my Facebook page.
The Ramadan bazaar is available daily until 30 August 2011. Open from 4.30pm - 8pm.
Location: Ramadan Bazaar, Taman Lensen, near Jalan 4, 56000 Cheras, Kuala Lumpur.
GPS Coordinates: 3.073345, 101.745479
A very nice spread - also saw the photos you tweeted and it looked delicious! Any new stalls to look out for? :D
ReplyDeleteCiki: At this bazaar, the best thing we ate was the lemang and rendang. No out of the ordinary stalls here.
ReplyDeletewow...i love the kuih pelita. Biasa if i got bazaar ramadan sure end up buying a lot LOL
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good spread here
ReplyDeleteI miss kuih pelita, my favourite too~~!!
ReplyDeletethe only ramadan bazaar i've ever visited was the one near bangsar village, maybe two years ago. i guess i'm just lazy to walk around, heheh. but the lemang looks tempting; i'm a fan of that too :D
ReplyDeleteI used to go to this one every year without fail! UNTIL... I decided to study in melbourne. :(
ReplyDeleteI love tepung pelita too...But the one I had yesterday was awful..*sigh*
ReplyDeleteHmm...like the pasar ramadhan..always return home with big & small bags of food! haha
i wasn't able to visit one last year. perhaps this year will do. so, their lemang and rendang the best ya, noted. :)
ReplyDeleteSmall Kucing: Nowadays they sell 5 in a pack, but easily can finish :P
ReplyDeleteBabe_KL: Yeah quite a good spread, cant wait to visit other bazaars.
ReplyDeleteFui: There's still 3 1/2 more weeks left for the bazaars.. make sure you go and get some ya!
ReplyDeleteSean: Hehe you have to brave the heat at these bazaars.. and also there's always a huge crowd. Probably one of those buffets would suit you better if you're too lazy. :P
ReplyDeleteMichelle: Well, after you finish your studies, you can go when you're living in KL :)
ReplyDeleteMelissa: Yeah, everything is so tempting.. have to be careful not to buy too much.
ReplyDeleteAi Wei: Just walk around first, the good things will stand out :)
ReplyDelete