Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Of Kambing Soup, Indian rojak, and Indian Mee siam

There have been posts recently by ieat on his FB page calling for suggestions on places to go for good soup kambing and indian mee siam, and his recent article on it.

These brought back memories for me. Please bear with me as I walk down memory lane ...

I remember as a kid, eating kambing soup at a push-cart stall just outside the Chinese Swimming club on Amber Road. It was a weekly affair, after a swim at the club with my dad, we will stop by the stall on our way home. From what I can remember, it was delicious! In fact, any meal in addition to our 3 main meals were always great, coz we werent blessed with abundant good food then, and anything extra was always welcome.

I also remember eating the Indian rojak, mee siam and kambing soup at Waterloo Street, just across from the old SJI field. I remember the indian rojak was really good and there were many stalls that we could choose from. Nowadays good Indian rojak stalls are so difficult to come by over here. I remember eating at the row of road-side stalls, and watching people kicking their footballs whilst we waited for and indulged the food.

There was also the hawker stalls at the then Prince Edward Road, and Orchard Road car park that only came out at nights. From these two places, I distinctively remember the murtabaks that we ate. Murtabaks are like roti pratas (indian breads), except that they are bigger and had eggs, mutton and onions in them. Mine was always a special order ... no onions please.

All these meals were always with my dad coz I guess it's because my mum doesnt eat beef and mutton. I remember an incident once when we were out for one of these meals and my uncle joined us. My uncle was ordering a cup of tea from the Indian stall, and he didnt want it too strong. So, he thought it was best to speak Malay to the indian man. He told the man "teh tak mau keras", thinking that he told the man he wanted his tea not too thick.

Guess what? The man served him his tea in a condense milk can with a string attached, having heard him say "tea tak mau glass"!! And the tea was strong!!

5 comments:

doc said...

the guy may have misunderstood "tak mau gelas" to mean take-away because before small plastic bags became common those days, that's how drinks were prepared for take-away.

maybe my kids will post something like this when they are older because my wife doesn't fancy indian food & it's me who take them out for the weekend breakfast of roti canai & teh tarik.

bp said...

What great memories of food and time with your dad! my own dad is lots more conservative about food choices (still is) so we never ventured beyond Chinese food mostly, but your sharing brings to mind the things he took me to eat when i was little too ;p Thanks, not longwinded at all lah!

hehe, and i can relate to the No onions please... that would be what I'll ask for also ;p, I put them in my cooking to sweeten things up but I pick them out more than I will eat them, and especially if it's RAW onion in salads!

btw, i just realized some older comments i left you somehow did not make it on your posts. Oh, but i am here, you know that :)

Blessed weekend there for u n fam!

stay-at-home mum said...

BP - never got those messages :(
You know you are one that I wont censor!

bp said...

Think it happens whenever I use my phone with limited Internet access, remember there were more of such mysteries of BP's missing comments! This time was the burger post one, also was telling you how my eldest is also growing and can wear my old tees from my 2kid days, but the best part is I can wear his next-size coat already, hehe! Not sure how he takes to mommy sharing his clothes tho', don't think it is a very tween/teen thing, haha! ;) Got at least another one, tell you after this... coz I had fun reading that post especially, blog on my dear, i always enjoy your sharing!

Tony Johor Kaki said...

Thanks for taking us down memory lane. I had good memories of that place near our good old, red brick National Library too. Its so hard to find good kambing soup or Indian rojak in S'pore these days. I still remember my dad taking me to old Bras Basah road in his Honda cub. I had an unforgetable roti prata there. It was heavenly. Perhaps because it was my first time. Never had anything like it again....