Jalan Alor 

July 4

The Jalan Alor Street Food Market has been in existence for over 100 years. I think they know what they are doing.

This market was certainly an eye opening, cross cultural experience!

Our cabbie, when dropping us off at one end, advised us to walk the entire street before buying anything to know what was available. We did and walked the several blocks (over a quarter of a mile or almost 500 meters) before doubling back. We found a mix of vendor stalls and sit-down eateries. The stalls included fresh fruit of many local, exotic varieties, fish stands offering large prawns, calamari, and other seafood, veggie stands with both fresh and cooked preparations, and the all important sweets in many varieties of desserts and candies. If you think it is edible, you can find it there.

Don was like a kid in a candy store with his camera!

The first stall was a fruit stand, where they proudly displayed the durian fruit. This is a big fruit, about the size of a bread fruit but with an outer coating of sharp spikes. (ed. Generally, this fruit may NOT be taken on public transport nor into public accommodations.) When cut in half, the protective, white flesh surrounded a ball, which looked like a cluster of small bananas. We did not sample any, at this time, though.

We, shortly, started getting samples, when offered, and progressed to small servings of what we wanted to try. Our first purchase, after we headed back into the fray, was dessert, coconut ice cream with slices of durian. Life is short, have dessert first!

I had spotted the things that I wanted to have. The first was an assortment of dim sung, wontons, and sticky rice balls. We then bought a spiral potato tower from another vendor; a whole potato is left intact after being spiral cut, opened up on a skewer and deep fried. I had seen skewers filled with various kinds of meat but could not locate this vendor among the jumble and chaos of this open air extravaganza.

We finally sat down at the vendor’s provided tables to eat our selections.Don ordered a local beer, which he compared favorably with most American brews. Small bottles are not a local option! The bottle was over a half a liter in size. I had a taste, he had about half of the rest, but we didn’t want to waste any, so we offered the remainder to an adjacent table of Japanese patrons. They insisted we join their party, which we did. A few had been to the States and wished us a Happy Independence Day. Some spoke English and translated for those who needed help. Don in the spirit of camaraderie helped finish his own beer. In the open spirit of the venue, what a grand experience.

After a long day we took our leave. Don wanted one more photograph; we headed in that direction and, finally at the end of the street, hailed a taxi back to our hotel.