Another Little Secret !

April 18, 2009

Another Little Secret !

I have a little secret ! When I was a young boy in secondary school, I used to sneak out once or twice a week for my own secret little pleasures. It's not what you think !

You see, my dad used to pick me up after school. It was convenient, but then I would lose the opportunity to enjoy my own little pleasure. So I used to look forward to the one or two days in the week when I had extracurricular activities in the afternoon and had to take the bus home. After the activities I would walk the 1 km or so to the bus station, and next to the bus station was the Open Air Hawker Centre. Inside was a stall which holds the secret to my childhood happiness.

The stall was Chang Swee Kang - an ice kacang stall serving the best ice kacang in Kuching. After so many years - it hasn't changed a bit, and the same uncle is still making the ice kacang. You cannot imagine how much enjoyment you can get from a bowl of this iced dessert which used to cost only 50 cents. Now the price has gone up to around RM 1.50, but it's still cheap !

I always order the iced kacang with cendol - in Chinese it's called "ang tau chien lut". "Kacang" is the red beans which has been cooked in syrup, and "cendol" is a green jelly noodle made from starch. These are topped with shaved ice and a thick dollop of palm sugar syrup, and then coconut milk is added. Some people ask for skimmed milk instead of the coconut milk, but to me that's a bastardization of the original.

This simple combination of a few ingredients is so tasty and refreshing that to this day, it is still one of my favourite desserts. How is it that a dish so simple can vary so much from stall to stall ? I guess the secret is in the ingredients. Each ingredient must be perfect to produce the perfect ice kacang cendol, and Chang Swee Kang is still the best in town.