Every few months or so, before the pandemic, a small pasar malam would pop up along the main pedestrian walkway near our neighbourhood market.
The night market would consist of about a dozen stalls selling the usual suspects — household plants, Ramly burger, shawarma, colourful sugary drinks, plastic phone cases and assorted deep-fried Chinese, Malay and Indian snacks.
It’s been almost two years since the last pasar malam and one thing that we’ve missed is the vadai that we would always buy from there. Given the current situation, it will probably be another year before the market makes its appearance again.
The Wife was in Tampines one afternoon, and realised that The Original Vadai had just opened a new outlet at the Century Square Mall. It’s a very famous brand and we assumed that it would taste better than our usual neighbourhood stall, but the only way to know for sure was to try it out ourselves.
They have quite a wide variety to choose from, and given the high turnover, the vadai don’t stay too long on their prominently displayed paper-lined trays.
This particular branch had only recently started operations, and didn’t even have product labels or even a proper price list. Interestingly, this didn’t deter the many customers who lined up, who were likely there because of the well-known brand.
Some of the vadai varieties (like the prawn and dhal) were quite obvious, but others were less clear cut. So, The Wife made the only logical choice and ordered one of each.
When she got home, she separated out the complimentary green chillies, cut each vadai into half and chucked them into the air fryer for re-heating.
They were oily, of course, but they weren’t as greasy as the ones we used to buy from downstairs, and we felt slightly less guilty having all of them for dinner that night.
Since there was no itemised receipt, we had to play a game of guess-what-we’re-eating as we bit into each piece.
The one with a piece of prawn on top was, well, the prawn vadai; and the one made entirely of dhal was, well, the dhal vadai. So far, so easy.
Then there was one with pieces of ikan bilis, and another with slivers of chives, and another with blackened bits that had a strong onion taste, and one which we really couldn’t identify.
They were all quite good, and definitely helped to satisfy our unfulfilled vadai craving. Each piece was soft and fluffy, except for the dense and grainy dhal vadai, and didn’t have any stale oil aftertaste.
In between mouthfuls, I took generous bites of the deep-fried green chillies to cleanse my palate. The Wife treaded more cautiously given that she was still recovering from the trauma of her green chilli incident earlier this year.
After finishing everything, our overall verdict was that The Original Vadai deserved its fame and reputation. However, we had two issues that would prevent us from making a repeat purchase.
One, it was quite pricey; and two, Tampines is really quite far away. They do have other outlets that are not so deep in the East, but none that were convenient for us.
I guess we’ll just have to wait until this pandemic blows over, and our neighbourhood pasar malam makes a re-appearance, hopefully sometime in the coming year.
