Peanut Pancakes

I’m not a morning person, and few things rouse me from slumber on precious precious weekends. However, the prospect of missing out on freshly made peanut pancakes was too much and I managed to strike the delicate balance between sleep and satiation. Rolled into Tanglin Halt market just before 11 and was richly rewarded for my early morning show of enthusiasm. The peanut pancake was still warm from the pan, the lao ban niang  all smiles, and as I sat and nibbled the prize for sleep-deprivation, all was right with the world :)

Leslie has a much more articulate review here, and if you’d like to pay the stall a visit because “all are welcome”, the address is 

Tanglin Halt Original Peanut Pancake

Tanglin Halt Market Stall 16 
97123653 
5am to 11am 
Closed on Mondays and Fridays

the home stretch

laksa and fishball noodles for brunch

checked out jonker one last time and hoarded the freshest, flakiest tau sar piah piping hot from the oven.

and left for home fuelled by the freshest, smoothest ang ku kueh.

 

home safe and mad props to mitsu, the steady, stable steed for carrying the lot of us 600km in 36h. and of course, the responsible, fatigue-resistant steerer of said steed deserves a shout out for his effort, too.

saturday night in malacca

hungry for some culture, we began at the portugese settlement by the sea and found ourselves satiated instead by some of the freshest seafood malacca has to offer. on nabil's recommendation (thanks nabs!) we checked out the imaginatively named stall 1. the vote of confidence from nab's discerning palate aside, what stall 1 had going for it was that it was the only stall that didn't tout. the moment we paused and exhibited some semblance of indecision along the esplanade, a swarm of touts descended on our little group, badgering us to patronise their stalls instead. jawrn was almost swayed by the tout from stall 5 who might have taken the negotiation module at university because he knew to enlarge the pie and create options. 

"you go stall 1 okaaay but if no space and food too slow, you come to my stall, stall 5."  

and true to form, we waited what seemed like eternity both for our table, and for the food.

bursting at the seams and with the seafood swimming in our bellies, we made our way to where the action's at i.e. jonker street. made a pit stop at bibik's for chendol* but ended up staying for the ge tai performance. every once in awhile, it's therapeutic to slow down, take a step back and listen to golden oldies singing the golden oldies on the makeshift stage smack in the middle of the night market.

the enraptured audience

after we'd our fill of wong fei hong & co., we loitered outside ringo for some golden oldies of a different sort, chiming in during the chorus and feeling like we were right there on penny lane.

*jonker 88 was closed, and i personally prefer the shaved ice at bibik's because it's much finer

day trip to anjuna goa

the tour desk next to the apartment offered an "anjuna day trip" for an amount i fail to correctly convert but still remember to be a "rip off" price. it'd have involved a 30min taxi ride through the village and to the other side of the mountains, some time t o wander around the market and then  ride back. 

anjuna was promoted as a hippy market with great finds. a bit of an oversell with an interesting back story. rumour has it that when the hippies were on the verge of extradition from goa, they were forced to create a makeshift market to sell their things. the tradition has continued and anjuna was  a sensory overload - all these vendors touting and being aggressive, despite the air heavy with marijuana. anyhoos, it was an experience but not worth the squeeze. unless you're the masochistic type who enjoys being amidst throngs of the young and not-so-young unwashed, or the kind of person who enjoys second hand smoke of the illegal sort. 

but back to getting to anjuna from baga. over breakfast at the sunset bar, the friendly waiter let slip that one could hug the coastline to anjuna and it'd only take half an hour. plus it'd be free to walk (well, duh). so in a most uncharacteristic show of action mama-ism, i decided to trek across the mountain. after all, how hard could it be? 

famous last words.

and after two hours i dragged my limp exhausted self into the first beach shack on anjuna beach and spent most of the afternoon recovering, only mincing my way to the market just as it was about to close.