Books, Rojak & Cendol.

Yesterday morning, I took leave from work and started early from my house to Petaling Jaya reaching my destination by 9.30 am. But other book lovers had already beaten me to the Pearson & Penguin Books Warehouse Sale. We book lovers were looking for the best bargains. There were several hundred thousands books going from as low as RM1.00. Most of novels are selling for between RM10 to RM15 while hardcover is going for RM20 to RM25. There are plenty of good bargains.

I asked the lady in charge whether the books were arranged in any specific order and was disappointed that they are all mixed up making hunting more difficult. The Malay word for that is “Rojak” meaning all messed up. Still, I had a plan. I always have a plan - whether it is any good is another matter.

First I went for the special interest hard covers. They offered the stiffest discount and there are usually only one or two books of each title available. My yield is not that good but I still pick up 3 books – “Art of Drawing landscapes”, “The Book of GO” and “Secret Universe of Names”. I will leave it to you to speculate why I bought them and I am quite sure you will get it wrong.

Next I went for travel guides. There were plenty of them in the last sales but it was disappointing this round. Most of the books available are on Europe but they are not on my budget (the countries I mean). The pickings on Asian destinations were meager. I bought Japan, Bali and Cambodia. I picked up Sri Lanka but put it down again. I am pleased to find Cambodia for Angkor Wat is waiting for me in January.


I went for the novels next starting with the hardcover. Although they are less in demand than softcover because of their higher prices, they are better arranged, bigger prints and thus easier to spot. I selected Neil Gaiman’s “Anansi Boys” for RM22 though its softcover is available for only RM10. Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite comic book author.

I saw this uncle in a wheel chair piling up books into a large basket. His reading habit is much wider than mine. I spotted books on religion, electronic, business, Stephen King and other novels. He had my respect and admiration.

An hour later, the place started to get crowded and there were ladies dressed for the kill, man with ties in hot weather, others in shorts and slippers, there were T-shirts, tudungs, and saris. Long pants, short pants, three-quarter pants, and hot pants that burns. Malay, Indian, Chinese and Caucasians. All not looking at each other. All with a single selfish intent. Serious looking, all eyes on the small prints, heads in the cloud. All trying to grab that good book before someone else did, lugging heavy tombs on carton boxes. We are the book hunters and books consume us.

There were young and old but not all were there by their choices. This small boy must be wondering “what am I doing here?” Little boy, when you grow up; I hope you succumb to this ‘fever’.

The warehouse sale is from 16 Nov to 21 Nov so there is still time to get over and grab some books. The full address is Lot 2, Jalan 215, Off Jalan Templer, Petaling Jaya.

What else did I get? For RM15 each:

Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go”
Vikram Chandra’s “Sacred Games”
Step Penney’s “The Tenderness of Wolves”

For RM12 each:
Zadie Smith’s “White Teeth”
Asne Seierstad’s “The Bookseller of Kabul”
Jan Morris’s “A Writer’s World”
Timeri N.Murari”s “Taj”

For RM10 each:
Kein Nguyen’s “The Tapetries”
Kiran Desai’s “The Inheritance of Loss”
James Surowiecki’s “The Wisdom of Crowds”
Mitch Albom’s “Tuesdays With Morrie”
Susanna Clarke’s “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell”
Ma Yan’s “The Diary of Ma Yan”

All together, I bought 27 books for RM401 and I was generally disappointed with the sales and purchase! I am accumulating many more books than I have the time to read. It will be terrible if I just become a collector. It was past mid-day and consuming all those words made me hungry. Time to eat.

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Another meaning for “rojak” is a Malaysian food where you throw in various foods, vegetables or fruits and mixed it all up. I believed it is the food that gave rise to the other meanings of “mixed up” or “messed up”. There are 2 main categories of rojak. The Chinese rojak which consisted mainly of sliced vegetables (turnips, cucumber, bean sprouts, etc) and fruits (pineapples, raw mangoes, starfruits, etc) thrown into a large bowl and vigorously stirred with prawn paste, then sprinkled with sesame seeds resulting in a mixture that is mouth-watering fresh, juicy, crunchy flavored by the strong, “aromatically pungent”, spicy wallop of the prawn paste. There are countless numbers of fruit/vegetable combinations and some even add in fried fritters.

The “Mamak” (Indian Muslim) rojak is quite different. The main vegetable is usually cucumber instead of turnip. Some turnip and bean sprout are often added though. Various types of fried fritters – crispy, crunchy, doughy flavored by prawns, peanuts etc replaced the fruits. Hard-boiled egg, fried taufu and for a premium pieces of cuttlefish cooked in fiery chilly sauce are piled into a plate. On top of which are poured the most important spicy sweet peanut sauce (made from peanut and sweet potatoes) which could make or break the combination.

Triggered by the word “rojak”, we drove to Subang to savor the famous SS15 Mamak rojak which is opposite the Shell Petrol station. There is usually a very long queue at whichever time of the day. This is amazing considering either you stand and eat or sit by the curb of the busy road as the few plastic chairs are quickly taken up and with only the leaves of trees for shelter. It is very interesting to watch well groomed men and women coming in their Mercedes car and squatting by the roadside eating their rojak alongside general workers in their shorts and soiled T-shirts. Seeing the rich humbled by their stomach is enough to make my day. Hunger is a great equalizer.

But wait, something is not quite right. The truck stood empty, forlorn looking. Coming closer, we saw a banner that declared the stall has shifted to a municipal kiosk 300m down the road. The SS15 rojak has shifted!

We saw a customers asking for direction from a nearby “makcik” (auntie) who is selling fried banana, yam and sweet potatoes fritters.

Following her, we spied the kiosk ahead after a couple of minutes walk.



As usual a queue has formed when we reached our target which is the last stall at the end.

We were lucky to grab a couple of plastic stools to at least sit and eat. Mmm… The taste is still as I remembered it. Crunchy fritters and slivers of cucumbers enveloped in the unique rich flavorful combination of sweet and spicy sauce. The secret of the SS15 rojak is in its sauce which the hawker doused in liberal amount. If they are too thick, they stand out as globs and stubbornly refuse to combine with the ingredients. Not too friendly, they will taste stingy like raw cucumber with peanut butter spread. If they are too thin, the ingredients just swim in them and you wonder what awful soup you are having. This stall hit it just right.

We finished it of with “cendol” which is a traditional Malaysian drink (I stubbornly refused to use the westernized term dessert as it has always been a drink to me). It is named after the greenish dough strands that is made from pea flour and flavored by pandan leaves. Large red beans cooked just short of being mushy, is another essential ingredient. To these are added coconut milk sweetened by the distinctive taste of “gula Melaka” (palm sugar) syrup. Which is then top up with plenty of shaved ice. This is a drink concocted in a Tropical heaven.

I had a Vietnamese friend who stays in Paris. On every return trip, he would go the Subang airport (KLIA was still a politician’s dream) early to have a bowl of what he called “the best drink on Earth”. Never had the heart to tell him that the airport sanitized version is a poor cousin to the raw version of street hawkers. Anyway, the SS15 cendol is a disappointment. It was just okay. Had better in a lot of other places.

We are now full and happy. As we reached our parked car, we saw a lady with sunglasses driving a Mercedes slowing down to look at the rojak truck. She then made a U-turn and headed for the direction we came from.