By Hazlin Hassan
Malaysia Correspondent
hazlin@sph.com.sg

 

IN MALAYSIA

A CHINESE friend of mine this week rued the fact that Ramadan is nearly over (Raya falls on 10 Sept) and she has not gone to a single 'Pasar Ramadan' or Ramadan Bazaar.

These are those ubiquitous afternoon bazaars that pop up in Kuala Lumpur during every fasting month selling all sorts of delectable goodies for people to break fast with.

These range from rainbow-coloured drinks to kuih and jellies to murtabaks, kebabs and char kuay teow.

Almost everything under the sun, basically.

It was then that I suddenly realised that I, myself, have only had the opportunity to go twice this year.

I used to go to bazaars quite a lot during Ramadan, as it was so convenient.

You don't have to slave over a hot stove once you get home from work, and there's so much variety of food to choose from.

 My friend's complaint shows that the Ramadan bazaar is not just for Muslims.

A lot of my non-Muslim friends are fans, and they look forward to this time of the year when food seems to be in abundance.

As my friend indicated, they too, can feel deprived, when they haven't had a chance to visit a bazaar!

But sometimes it's hard to tell which bazaars are the best, and which stalls one should go for. There are plenty of opportunists who hawk mediocre food to take advantage of hungry customers.

This year, a group of Malaysians decided to harness the power of the social media by informing the public of good food stalls at Pasar Ramadans in KL on Twitter and Facebook.

They also have their own website at www.paramkl.com.my, and they provide reviews over the BFM Business Radio Station on frequency 89.9 in KL.

Called ParamKL (short for Pasar Ramadan Kuala Lumpur), they scout out the best places to go and put up mouthwatering reviews and photos online, and even remind folks to bring their own bags and not to be wasteful and buy too much food.

ParamKL has been really handy for people to keep up, not just with the usual bazaars, but also with relatively new bazaars in newly-opened residential areas such as Penchala and Kota Damansara at the far edges of KL.

On their first day on Twitter, they had 200 followers. Now they have over 500. They also encourage members of the public to share reviews.

One of the ParamKL scouts, Diyana Shahrum, updating the @ParamKL twitter account on location PHOTO: Hazlin Hassan

Zain HD, one of the creators of ParamKL, told me: "We felt that there was a void in the social sphere... Every year people go to Pasar Ramadans but nobody knows for sure where to find the specifically good stuff, just as how they know of the good restaurants all year round."

He too noted that the Pasar Ramadan is a universal concept which is not exclusive to Muslims.

'Many non-Muslims also enjoy shopping at Params,' he said.

A non-Muslim friend has been meaning to visit a Param with me after work, but we never seem to be able to get our acts together.

Seeing as there are only a few days left until Raya, we'd best make it soon or we'll have to wait until next year!