Snacking at Jonker Street Night Market

One of the pleasures of exploring night markets is that almost everything can be found in them. The Jonker Street Night Market is certainly no exception. In fact, the night market is probably the perfect place to sample the small eats that Melaka has to offer. The night markets of Hong Kong and Taipei are well known for their selection of snacks available for the taking. The Jonker Street Night Market, though not as grand as the ones found in those places and still give them a run for their money.

Naturally, a lot of the snacks available are native snacks. There were a lot of these durian-based and sugar based products which I personally have no inclination for. I’m sure locals who are more accustomed to eating such snacks will have a field day from all these. I also noticed some snacks which don’t seem to belong in a night market in Malaysia. There were these interesting potato spirals which are basically carved from a single potato by sticking them on a barbeque stick and rotating them on a special cutter which gives the interesting spiral shape. The whole thing, stick and all, are thrown into a deep fryer and cooked for several minutes, later to be seasoned with your choice of flavor.

There were some more traditional snacks like dough sticks and even Portuguese egg tarts on sale. Some Malay folk were selling barbequed dried squid which gives of a very pungent smell to the uninitiated. There seems to be an endless supply of these snacks that you’d get tired of seeing them one after the other. You’d probably have to queue up for your favorite snack though since there are that many people out there. It makes me wonder too how the Melaka authorities manage to keep Jalan Hang Jebat so clean after every week of night market activity.

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