Malaysia
Singapore
Thailand
Would you travel 1 hour just for a food event? Recently, I heard that Khatib’s pasar malam will be returning for 15 days from 5 to 19 Jul, 12pm to 10pm daily!
The presence of 40+ food stalls and a live performance sounded exciting, but since Khatib is located 1 hour away from my home, I wondered if the travel time was worthwhile.
Still, I decided to visit Khatib pasar malam with my friend. You never know — there might be something special there.
We were intrigued by the range of drink options at an unnamed drinks stall, especially the Twin Cup (S$6). With this cup, you enjoy 2 drinks, each 500ml. That’s S$6 for 1 litre! Tempted, we ordered it with the Watermelon Mania and Lemon Mint Asamboi.
The drinks were initially well-separated, but mixed together after a while. We first had a sip of the milky watermelon mania. Its sweetness was on point, but it tasted a little too artificial.
If you enjoy sour plum, you may prefer the lemon mint asam boi. The mint flavour is less noticeable, but the asam boi flavour is very prominent, giving the drink a sour yet salty profile. We both enjoyed this more than the watermelon mania, but we agreed it would taste better if the watermelon wasn’t mixed into it.
Before visiting the pasar malam, we were looking forward to the potato twist. That’s why the Twist Potato with Truffle Powder (S$3.50) from Take A Bite topped our must-order list. We also noticed that the stall sold Fried Oreo with Icing Sugar (S$4). HUHH, that’s a thing?
I expected a strong truffle flavour from the potato twist, but the powder wasn’t spread evenly, resulting in an unbalanced truffle flavour. Surprisingly, this made the potato twist more enjoyable. On some bites, I could savour the original flavour alone, while the truffle powder was especially strong with other bites.
Having my favourite Oreo cookies fried was also a special experience. The fried batter and crumbly, creamy Oreo create a great contrast, while the icing sugar adds a great finishing touch.
But the most unique stall here was undoubtedly My Candy World. The stall sells live-printed candy (S$5 for 1, S$9 for 2, S$12 for 3), offering a range of cartoon designs including Hello Kitty, Crayon Shinchan and even Sun Wukong. We had the Original (Lemon) flavour with the Minion design, and it made us feel like children again.
The sticky candy is packaged in a plastic wrapper which can be torn on the sides. Bring the candy into your mouth, and you’ll enjoy its smooth mouthfeel, satisfying crunch and melt-in-the-mouth sweetness. The lemon flavour isn’t too strong, and will appeal to young children.
Wondering why such a unique stall never caught my eye at previous pasar malams, I had a chat with the staff, who told me that this is their pasar malam debut. No wonder!
After ordering our food, we enjoyed our meal at a large dining area while listening to the live performance. It was a great experience overall; my only gripe was that there weren’t enough non-fried options. But I believe the 1-hour travel time was worth it.
