Two days in a row…

When we were at the Bandong Ramadan Bazaar on the 2nd Day of Ramadan, I did walk past this stall…

…and the very nice and friendly lady caught sight of me. She could still recognise me even though we hardly ever get to meet except at this time of the year. She asked if I wanted her nasi kuning ayam berempah but I said it was Friday and we were not eating meat that day. Smiling away very pleasantly, she replied, “Tak apa! Datanglah esok!” (Never mind, come tomorrow!)  and that was what I did the very next day and of course, that meant that we were there two days in a row!

I did not take note of the price the previous day and when I saw that it was still RM5.00, the same since 2015, I must say that I was very surprised considering that everything has gone up in price by leaps and bounds since then. They seemed to have “downsize” somewhat though – the chicken rendang and the sambal options were no longer available so all one would get here would be their nasi kuning (yellow rice)…

…and their ayam berempah (chicken with spices)…

…and this tofu and long beans combo…

…plus some sambal cili (chili dip).

When I ate it that evening, I was kind of disappointed as it did not taste as nice as before and looking at my old post, it seemed that they had some sambal tempeh then but not anymore. I added some of the tempeh left over from the day before and somehow or other, that brought it to a whole new level and I really enjoyed it after that.

This stall next to it…

…seemed to enjoy brisk business but I did try their nasi kak wok once and no, it did not sweep me off my feet. However, it sure looked like they had a wide range of options one could choose from…

…now so perhaps, the next time I drop by this bazaar again, I would buy something from them to try.

While I was there, I saw somebody selling buah kurma (dates), boxes and boxes of them displayed on a table outside his little shop and they were all the celebrated Yusuf Taiyoob ones…

My friend, Merryn, seemed to love them so much and would feast on those come Ramadan every year. Even my girl knew of it – she said she saw the commercial on tv, the one with the girl whispering, “Yusuf Taiyoob!!!…Yusuf Taiyoob!!!“ I bought the moist-looking ones, those with honey – the rest were all on their tangkai (stems) and looked kind of dry so they did not appeal to me. I tried them after dinner that evening and yes, it was very nice and my girl loved them too so I packed some from the box (500 gm/RM13.00) for her to take to her school in the jungle and enjoy them there.

In the meantime, my missus went to this stall across the road from the nasi kuning ayam berempah and the nasi kak wok ones selling sotong bakar (grilled squid)…

…and ikan bakar (grilled fish)…

It looked like they only had ikan pari (sting ray) but that was fine with us – my girl likes it…so the mum bought a slab for her to take back to her school to eat in the course of the week.

The next day, on our way back from my girl’s school, we did pass by this Ramadan bazaar around 10 miles from town but it looked very crowded – there were so many cars parked till very far away alongside the road so we did not bother to stop by – after all, my main intention was to bring my girl around to see if there was anything she fancied and since she had gone back to the school for the week, there wasn’t much of a point then. Maybe when we go and pick her this Friday and if they are open already by the time  we are on our way back, we will go and see what they have in store this year.

THE BANDONG RAMADAN BAZAAR (2.314192, 111.825581) is located around the shops at Jalan Bandong and all along Bandong Walk, somewhere around the primary schools and the surau in the vicinity.