Potong ice-cream - A local ice-cream sandwich

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A squarish-shaped potong ice-cream held together with wafer biscuits or two slices of coloured bread depending on your preference. And it's only a dollar or a dollar and twenty cents at the most. Licking the yummy cold ice-cream is great in our hot and humid weather.

You can find the portable or mobile potong ice-cream vendors (mostly middle-age or elderly uncles and aunties) in their modified motorcycles complete with box freezers at parks, beaches, pasar malam (night markets), outside MRT stations, along Singapore River, at the Esplanade, even along Orchard Road. For office workers they can also be found outside industrial offices or estates so it is snack that can be enjoyed during lunch-hour! Thus, enjoying ice-cream need not be an expensive affair. Well-known gourmet ice-cream brands are known to cost about $5 for a single scoop!

Potong ice-cream
Potong ice-cream
A favourite potong ice-cream flavour is yam with black beans, as can be seen in the photo. Other popular flavours include red beans, mint, chocolate chips and of course an all-time local favourite, durian! There are many other flavours including tropical fruits flavours such as mango and corn, and the usual flavours of vanilla and strawberry.

By the way, potong is a Malay word for 'cut'. Because the ice-cream is cut from bigger blocks of ice-cream. A cooling and very affordable fun dessert! Especially in hot and humid weather like Singapore. Ice-cream vendors tend to sell bottled drinks and can drinks as well, great when you are out and about and looking something to cool you down other than ice-cream.

Ice-cream vendor
'Uncle' selling ice-cream.
So, the next time you are at upmarket Orchard Road, the Esplanade, at Bugis market, at Changi Beach, or outside neighbourhood malls or MRT stations, look out for the aunties or uncles selling potong ice-cream on their classic looking motorbike adapted for selling ice-cream complete with coolers. They used to be right at the heartlands near housing and development board flats, but their sight is getting rarer by the day.

Some may find the potong ice-cream lacking in creativity as compared to Thai roll ice-cream or the Turkish ice-cream but hey we are practical people. It is fast, cheap and more importantly tasty, cooling and delicious! In Singapore tropical heat, the ice-cream melts pretty fast. A simple, quick cooling dessert by the street is all we need.

The street art at Chinatown by local artist Yip Yew Chong shown here, depicts an 'uncle' selling cone and potong ice-cream from his pushcart. Kids certainly love ice-cream. Don't we all. The term 'uncle' or 'auntie' is commonly used here for someone, usually older, that we do not know and for convenience.

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