Rain or shine, Malaysians are all smiles when they see durians. Amazing how a roadside stall can bring traffic to a standstill.
Upon sighting the durians, many motorists made emergency stops, left their cars haphazardly by the roadside and ran hurriedly to the source of the scent.
Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd, I suppose.
Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 125, f4, 1/400 sec.
These are actually vermicelli-rice flour string hoppers awaiting steaming on top of a pau steamer cover. The rattan dome is wrapped with a white cloth.
I found out that the South Indian Putu Mayam is from Venus and Putu Mayung is from Pluto. The pakcik hawker at the Ramadan bazaar noticed me giving the name on the banner a double take.
The intuitive man explained that in the north, it is known as Putu Mayung. It tastes just as wonderful with grated coconut and ‘gula melaka’ or coconut palm sugar.
I inverted the image and called it Plutu. The asteroid belt is out-of-focused points of light and people outside the tent.
Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f7.1, 1/200 sec.
I asked the operator and he said he extracts (or blends) the juice from the watermelons without adding water or sugar, as other sellers would.
The stall brands itself as Kaw-Kaw Tembikai Blend. Kaw is the Hokkien word for thick.
Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 125, f4, 1/200 sec.
Putrajaya’s Ramadan Bazaar is refreshingly different and somewhat bizarre. It is more a showcase of clever marketing tactics, than of food.
Many of the stalls have banners with hipster catchphrases such as ‘the real original’, ‘no additives’, ‘infused’ and ‘yogurt-fied’, for example.
Quite a few proclaim a small town’s name where the dish and seller supposedly originate; leaving you wondering why they are not selling in their home towns.
If in doubt, one can always ask via their Facebook (and ‘like’ symbol) displayed on the stall.
Maybe I found all the hipster mantra odd because I spent the last two weeks at rural Ramadan bazaars where traditional food and a smile was the appeal.
Here’s sweet and sulky Aini selling red velvet cakes. I don’t like velvet cakes so I bought some layered blueberry and tiramisu cheese cakes from her.
How can I not? She baked all the cakes herself, all night, while listening to indie music.
Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f6.3, 1/80 sec.
They always look graceful when frozen by the camera in mid-flight. At a market, I saw a shopkeeper throwing grains and the birds swooping in from a telephone wire.
Pays to keep the camera in S or shutter priority mode for street photography. I rolled the dedicated shutter speed control dial rapidly while lifting the camera to my eye.
It all happened in a matter of a few of seconds. Before I hit the targeted 1/4000th of a second, the birds were already overhead.
While I can control the camera, the flight formation is all luck. I added the green hue in post.
Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 200, f4, 1/3200 sec.
