Gosh! It’s New Year’s Eve today and I still have a backlog of Kuching posts yet to be published.
This was on our last night in Kuching and we had kept that evening free so that my girl would be able to go out with her friends, going back all the way to primary school. The mum went to the mall next door again and she had an early dinner while she was there so I was left to my own devices.
Thinking that I would like to have some rice after so many days, I strolled to The Open Air Market which despite its name, is not a market but a hawker food centre instead, and that other section of the place…
…was open, all ready to roll but I had a change of heart and walked to the other section…
…to see what I could have instead.
The place looked quite pathetic, quite dead with so very few people around, nothing like the way it used to be in its glory days in the 70’s when the customers would spill over onto the road, figuratively speaking, that is…or maybe, everyone was suffering from a hangover after Saturday night.
The steamed paos and siew mai stall was open but I did not feel like having those, not for dinner. Ah Mui, the beef noodles stall, was closed – they do not open on Sundays, I hear…and many of the other stalls were closed too. Maybe they do not open at night, a Sunday night especially.
I asked for the tomato kway teow from this stall…
…but they were out of kway teow and I settled for the crispy mee (RM4.50)…
…instead. It was nice, just as good as the (more expensive) one I had here the last time I was in the city though it did not look as presentable.
Back in the 70’s, we would frequent one particular kolo mee stall here. We called the fat lady running it, “Gypsy Woman” by virtue of the huge ring earrings that she wore. She was no longer there, of course but this one…
…did seem to attract quite a number of customers so I asked for the big bowl (RM5.00)…
…to see if it was any good. It was all right, nice but not anything that would make me go out of my way for.
I walked sadly back to the hotel that quiet night feeling kind of down and disheartened that all these places that used to bring us so much joy way back in the good ol’ days had turned into pale shadows of what they used to be.
THE OPEN AIR MARKET (1.559021, 110.342409) is located across the road from Electra House along Jalan Power in Kuching.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
Sad right? I will feel moody too seeing that the good old days are gone.
You can say that about a lot of places in Singapore too, no longer the Singapore that I loved so well back in 1973.
Open Air Market is like a dead place by night and so is Electra House. Not like it used to be in the 70’s. This looks like the 1st stall selling kolo mee just opposite the stall selling paos and sio bee. Wonder if the very nice char kuih stall next to the kolo mee is still there.
Yes, that’s the 1st stall all right, the one on the right at the entrance. The stall next to it was closed, in fact, most of the stalls that side were closed, only a few Ah Mui side were open. I wonder who goes to Electra these days.
I dont go there anymore, any part of the Open Market. Haha. One is hard to find parking at night.
Used to enjoy the kolo mee there. With soya milk and sio bee. Those were my childhood memories.
I guess it was because I went on a Sunday night – I think there wasn’t a problem finding a parking space close by. India Street was closed for the day so that would mean even fewer people around.
Anyway, these days, there are not many people in the city centre at night. Most will flock to the newer areas with the sparkling new eateries. The city centre is quite dead…sad to say.
Hahha, too many posts pending? Welcome to my life too 😀
The Kuching ones, not that many left – only two more, I think…but there are lots of other things waiting in line.
I shy away from places that are empty. I get concerned about the freshness of the food.
Yes, I was wondering about that whole steamed chicken in the display cabinet. Surely they would not be able to sell all of it in one night!
At the end of the night, you still didn’t have any rice. They should put some green vegetables on the crispy noodles.
Yes, and not use plastic! The kolo mee too!