Ice Cream Potong

We used to buy ice cream potong ( or ping tiau) from an alley shop along Central Road. It was always a sneak business because we were not allowed icy food by our parents. Iced items would destroy our stomachs and we had already been educated in the ying and yang of food. But as kids we were stubborn and we enjoyed our sneak food of chendol (dirty) and rojak (uncooked and full of germs) and ice cream potong (could give intestinal worms because the water was not cooked).

But we did not turn out to be pot bellied worm infested kids. We were healthy and full of life and perhaps even brilliant in school. We never told our parents we were eating ice cream potong whenever we had those extra two cents. Only our tell tale tooth ache would give us away.

When I became a teacher trainer I travelled to Sabah very often for workshops and seminars. And there I fell in love with ice cream potong all over again. My luggage would be full of cabbages and other green vegetables from Kundasang and my hand luggage would be a box or two of ice cream potong. Eating ice cream potong was like transporting myself and my children to the world of Peter Pan and Tinker Bell and other Disney dreamlands.


I grabbed this photo from jg's blog. Thanks.

My happy boy with his long lasting friends. They are friends in good times and bad times. through thick and thin....and they all enjoy good food and are good cooks

Not long ago I managed to buy another box...and gave a treat to my now grown up son and his friends....ice cream potong.... I have long ago learned more about how our body reacts to different kinds of food. Although ice has become a very important part of our lives we definitely still have to be cautious about the source of the water which makes the ice.

I am wondering what has happened to the family who invented ice cream potong in Sibu...I once even aspired to sell some thermos flasks of ice cream potong if I failed my Primary Six Entrance Examination. However I never fail to pay attention to makers of ice cream potong.

Ice cream potong is that part of my childhood which makes me feel 12 years old all over again.