Last week when I posted about Bombe Alaska, theresalighton responded with this picture of a wafer ice-cream sandwich[1] with the descriptive filename of ‘ice-cream-potong’.
So I spent the following half hour looking up ais potong, reading other peoples’ reminiscences over it, and getting myself all nostalgic over blocks of flavoured ices on sticks and ice-cream sandwiches.
I even found a couple facebook pages dedicated to the love of ais potong. Not surprising given the number of pages dedicated to the love of kolo mee[2].
The things on sticks from Google Images is what I think of when I say ais potong although whether in stick or sandwich form, my flavours of choice are your traditional Malaysian flavours of sweet corn, taro, black glutinous rice, red bean or durian. Love them all.
[1] Nom! Although whenever I had one of these back home or at one of the shops in Malaysia, I always opted for the sweet Asian style bread sammiches myself :D. <3 that sweet milky bread.
[2] If you Google kolo mee[3], the first hit is to the wiki page for my family’s home town, Kuching[4].
[3] While you’re at it, look up Kuching Laksa or Sarawak Laksa. Superior to all other variants of laksa, if you ask me. But then, I’m biased.
[4] I love that it says “locals often debate vigorously as to where to find the best variety”[5][6]. Because it’s so true.
[5] Bloody Malaysians and their passion for food, hey. ;)
[6] Also note where it says just after “Visitors should be aware that portions are half of what is usually commonly found at Chinatowns in the West”. This seems to be a sticking point with some tourists who want their ‘value for money’ sized portions. Aside from the fact you’re probably paying something like RM3 (~AUD$1) for a bowl of food (you cheap bastards) the servings are small because of the following reasons (among others):
- Do you know how many times Malaysians will eat each day[7]? We really like our food and we eat small so we can eat frequently.
- If you have small servings you can eat a greater variety of things. One bowl of each item from from each hawker stall, please! Why? We really like our food.
[7] My sister used to joke to me that my grandfather skipped two of his six meals a day to save money to send my father to university. I suspect she might not have been joking[8].
[8] This is a lot of footnotes. And I think I’ve lost track of the threading[9].
[9] I’m now also very hungry after looking at those food related pages. Damn it.
