As for the ice-kacang stall on Cowan Street, the serving was garnished with a scoop of ice-cream. The owner had a daughter who was in a Form Six class in my school, and he also owned a coffee shop along Anderson Road (behind Ruby Cinema). The Nyonya lady's assam laksa was without doubt, a runaway winner and it was more than comparable to the famous Turf Club laksa or even the one in Air Itam, Penang. She had "Hae Ko" ( a black shrimp paste condiment) in small "Brands Essence of Chicken" bottles on each table and when I pour too much of it into my bowl of laksa, she would glance at me with a look of disapproval in her eyes. The popiah sold in this stall was something to die for too. Whenever I drove past that stretch of Cowan Street, the aroma that was wafting in the air would instantly aroused the hunger pangs in me.

The One-Eye Jack rojak man starts his day at noon behind Main Convent, and he usually ends up in Leong Sin Nam Street. His stall was immaculately clean and needless to say, his rojak
(always sprinkled with a few drops of liquid assam juice) attracted a huge legion of fans from all walks of life.

Another Malaysian delicacy that I missed is Nyonya Kueh. When I was very young, I remember these delicate pastries being sold by Indian men, carrying two rattan containers, balanced on each end of a long wooden pole. The kueh was very good because it was home-made by Nyonya families, not mass-produced like the way it is done these days. Years later, I discovered another good source for Nyonya kueh; a house in Jln. Selangor in Canning Garden. This family use to operate a stall in the old Glutton Square in Ipoh Garden. Regrettably, I did not come across this stall during my last visit, so the Nyonya kueh trail in Ipoh has grown cold I suppose. Nevertheles, I did manage to track down a decent shop for these delectable bite-size cakes: Ah Han Nyonya Kueh located in SS2, Petaling Jaya.

By the way, is there any good Nyonya restaurant in Ipoh? I ate at the Hot Wok in Penang recently and it was quite an enjoyable experience. The food was good but it was not very similar to the home-cooked Nyonya dishes I had tasted in Melaka many years ago.

Once again, thank you for refreshing my memory on those long gone school days. It is amazing that with the limited resources I have at that time, I can still afford to indulge in simple after-school pleasures like gulping down cool ice-kacang on a hot afternoon in tropical Malaysia.

Best wishes and warmest regards from a distant USA. Bye!