Pasar malam or night market is a part of our lifestyle in Malaysia. By 5 pm the road has to be clear of cars so that the itinerant hawkers can set up their stalls.

There are three rows of stalls lined up along the whole length of the road and all kinds of things and food are sold. Once it is not so hot, people throng the pasar malam to buy their weekly provisions.

I never miss going to the pasar malam whenever I’m in KL. My daughter and I will buy our fruits and dinner from there. It’s usually very crowded so we go earlier to avoid the crowd that usually comes around 6:00 to 6:30 pm. That way we avoid the queues at the popular stalls.

Fruits are very cheap, e.g. you can get beautiful honey mangoes at a low price of 3 kg for RM10.00!! Oranges go for RM1.00 each and even persimmons are very cheap. Once I bought 15 persimmons for RM10.00 which is a pipe dream in Sabah.This time I saw lots of dukong, a hybrid I think.

You can buy cooked food,like roast duck, satay (charcoal-grilled chicken and beef on skewers )
fresh vegetables, fish, prawns, flowers,

clothing, footwear,
tidbits, sunglasses, etc. etc. The variety is so great that it’s impossible to list them all. I believe no one cooks dinner on Sundays because you can buy your favorite food at the pasar malam.

You can also have your fondue-like food. You just select whatever raw food on skewers and cook them in boiling water. Then you eat them with your choice of sauce. There is usually a good variety of seafood, meat and vegetables. Some people call this “lok lok” meaning you cook your food in the boiling water.

Even the foreigners know how to come to the pasar malam to buy their provisions or to eat at the stalls. The assam laksa ( a spicy soup noodle ) is a favorite with most people. This is one of my favorites too. I love the poh piah ( spring roll with vegetable filling ) and the paper thin pancakes ( apong ) and sometimes I go for the “lok lok”. My daughter likes the sweet corn and the sotong balls ( minced cuttlefish balls ). We usually buy back the poh piah,
the yau char kueh,
apam, sweet corn. Before we reach home we already finish eating the apam and yau char kueh!!

So depending on what you want, you can find it all at the pasar malam. The hawkers move from place to place. We have them on Sundays which is very convenient. This is one reason why I don’t take a flight home on Sundays. Cannot forgo my visit to the pasar malam!!