Yummy Malaysian Delights in the Richmond Public Market
It had been ages since we stepped into the Richmond Public Market. We were shopping for groceries around that area and decided to go to the Richmond Public Market to get some desserts — ice plate specifically. Something tells me that we could get it there.
The Richmond Public Market was a great idea which I felt went wrong. Unlike the many public markets around Metro Vancouver, the Richmond Public Market seems to be suffering from some bad choices of tenants. About the only thing that will draw us here is the food court.
The design of the Richmond Public Market is good. It is brightly lit with a sky roof and the layout is practical. However, they seems to allow all kinds of businesses here without much regard on how they fit in to the overall image. For instance, I felt it strange to see a lot which sells mattresses and beds next to the butcher stall.
I am just not proud of my city’s public market really.
What is interesting at the Richmond Public Market is the food court. It is like a collection of Asian hole-in-the-walls. Obviously this is MSG-city but the food here is cheap and in many instances really authentic. There are a few stalls which specializes on little known regional Chinese cuisine.
There is a stall just right at the entrance to the car park. For some reason, this strategic spot had always been a Malaysian stall. This place must have changed hands at least once in the past 10 years. I am not surprised if it had changed owners several times already.
In this stall now is the Yummy Malaysian Delights. They had on their menu a lot of Malaysian delights but we were only looking for this …
In Malaysia, this is called the ABC. ABC is short for Air Batu Kacang, literally translated as Red Beans in Ice. It is also known as Ais Kacang. This is an excellent choice of dessert for summer.
Ais Kacang is made with shaved ice. Yummy Malaysian Delight uses one of those machines used to shave blocks of ice. It is a very simple dessert really. The Ice Kacang is $3.75.
It is shaved ice with lots of dessert ingedients which is never quite standard. The most common ingredient is of course the presence of the red bean. In Yummy Malaysian Delights, they included corn, cendol, leung fun and lychee. The sweetness of the Ice Kacang is from adding rose syrup, palm sugar syrup and some condensed milk.
What is notably missing is peanuts. Ice Kacang MUST have peanuts and they did not even include it! How could they? LOL! Next time I am here for this I am going to bring along my own packet of peanuts.
What is notably added is a scoop of ice cream. Ice Kacang MUST NOT include ice cream. How could they? LOL! The ice cream made the Ice Kacang unneccessarily creamy. We decided we not mix the ice cream and just eat by scrapping off the sides until the ice cream topples over.
We decided to also get a Malaysian salad called Fruit Rojak. This is $5.50 and is quite similar to those found in Malaysia. In this salad are cucumber, pineapple, “jicama”, tofu puff, bean sprout and loads of crushed peanuts. The dressing is what makes this a Rojak. It is made from shrimp paste, chili and sugar.
Haven’t been there for awhile, but they’re 1/2 block east of my mechanic, so every time I drop my car off for service I’d walk over and get a snack (or even try to justify a lunch at 10am !) at the food court. Everything you described is about bang on, LOL, but actually of all the Asian malls in the region (Yaohan, Aberdeen, Crystal) I like RPM’s the best. There’s something very homey and un-pretentious about the vendors and their foods. And I find their foods authentic, cheap and good in comparison (actually I’m somewhat allergic to MSG and I’ve never found their foods affect me).
The curries at Yummy’s are to die for. But some of the Northern Chinese foods from vendors on the other side, as well as that Taiwanese stall at the far corner where the coffee/espresso vendor is are quite good.
Wow I am surprised they serve rojak! yum…
I miss Prima Taste’s ice kacang
Hi Ben,
The Rojak looks really good! Is the stall owner from Penang? You guys really have it good there – having the best of both worlds!
JL
Hi John: I don’t know if they are from Penang. Looks is deceptive.
Don’t know how you guys think about their Laksa but I like it~
Wendy: Never tried their laksa before. They have a lot of Malaysian dishes there. Will definitely make a visit … someday!
I haven’t had great ais kacung since I went to Singapore as a kid!
lol – ice cream in ais kacung, how could they?!? It defeats the whole purpose of having the dessert! :o\
The reason why there are no nuts is a large number of Canadians are Allergic to nuts and single peanut can be fatal to them.Ice cream makes it into a Philippine Halo Halo So you had a Halo Halo which is like an Ice Kachang
You sure know how to field these type of questions, PinoyGourmet … as always!
fruits rojak I love it, but some very salty.
Makan Dulu!
Great food. Yumyum
I just went here the other day! I really wanted to order the Rojak, but I didn’t know what it was. So opted for the rice +2 items. The rojak looks good though! I’ll have to try that next time.
Hi Mijune:
You can easily try to make this at home if you want. We have the recipe here: http://chowtimes.com/2006/12/08/fruit-rojak/
Ben
Feb. 18, 2010 – Just returned to SF Bay Area from Richmond for the Olympics. Discovered RPM while checking out the neighborhood near the Richmond O Zone, and headed straight for the Yummy Malaysian Delight. At last! tasty and authentic Chicken Rice (served with broth, rice, chicken and dipping sauces, all for $6.95). Tropika in the Aberdeen Center charges $1.75 for the rice, and it was gummy! — no soup at all. We also ordered the laksa — loved the coconut flavor in the broth. So we had a good time at the Olympics and didn’t spend a fortune on food. Such a deal.
Hi Pearl: What? You are back in the Bay Area already? The Olympics had hardly started. LOL! We like Yummy Malaysian Delight too. But I see that this stall in the Richmond Public Market had changed hands several times already but always Malaysian food.
Ben