A BIT OF FRESH AIR in AIR ITAM

WELL, NOT REALLY FRESH AIR as such ... especially with the exhaust fumes. More like a trip back to childhood when life was much simpler and there were no such things as supermarkets and designer coffees. And where better to experience what it was like than at our very own Air Itam, which doesn't seem to have changed in the past fifty years. Just everyone seems to have grown a bit older, is all (as they say in America).

So yesterday morning, for a change, I got up early and drove to Air Itam Market just for the hell of it. It was, as it appears to be every morning, packed, especially the bit where the stalls line both sides of the road leading to Balik Pulau.

I love the hustle and bustle of street life everywhere, but in Malaysia particularly. It's just so "us" isn't it, so colourful and eclectic. The live animals for sale; the fresh fruit and vegetables, the knick-knacks that we should do without but cannot resist buying; the haggling and clamouring for the best bargain. Things have changed a little bit: instead of shouting out his stuff the more canny vendor uses a battery-powered microphone during his demonstration, and that really does draw in curious onlookers. Real kay po chee, we are.

There are a few stalwarts of the market who have been there for decades: for example the two sisters who declined to give their name who sell their Curry Mee from one of the side streets. They have no stall per se, just a few baskets set down on the floor around them.

To be honest the novelty value is there, but I didn't think much of it. I had real issues about the hygiene, especially as there was really nothing to separate their food from the dirt on the ground except a thin basket. They used their hands for practically EVERYTHING, but had no boiling water to blanch the noodles in initially; it was just heated through the soup (albeit twice). On top of that the chopsticks really weren't clean. Usually I can persuade myself to shut one eye to one or two dirty things, but the whole experience wasn't brilliant. It was lukewarm, curdled and tasted pretty bland. You had to serve yourself too. I paid up, had one mouthful and left. They've been there over 30 years apparently. Not sure why.

In my eternal search for the perfect Hokkien Mee I tried out a couple of kopitiams, thinking that such old places MUST surely still have good ones, from generations of hokkien mee makers ... to my disappointment neither was any good really. It's back to Ah Choo's (Sin Seng Lee Kopitiam opposite Tg Bungah Bus Depot) for me.