Fresh bread... made in Pasir Pinji!

IPOH, July 6 — Those of us who grew up here in the 80s might still be holding on to memories of lazy Sunday afternoons watching cartoon shows on TV with friends or siblings and eagerly awaiting the arrival of the “ting ting” man.

The what?

The “ting ting” man — a nickname we bestowed fondly on the man — would roar into our neighbourhood with his bike loaded with snacks, sweets, buns and fresh loaves of breads, selling them from door to door in the late afternoons.

While my brother and I gleefully spent our pocket money on our week’s supply of Mamee, Tora, Nini, haw flakes or those colourful sweets encased in a glass-like blister packs, mum and grandma would pick the freshest breads and buns for breakfast the following morning.

The smile on the man’s face as he counted the loose change on his sweaty palm, the sheer pleasure of digging into the coffee cream bun on the spot, and the camaraderie of the neighbourhood kids encircling the man and shouting for his attention for fear of seeing their favourite snack being sold out... precious memories.

Sliced into about half-an-inch thick, the Hainanese bread is perfect for breakfast with coffee and even Milo

To city dwellers over in the Klang Valley (where I reside and work now) and all the Millennium babies out there, the description above probably sounds alien and distinctly different from your memories of growing up with food from supermarkets and snacks in cartons or tubs.

But I still remember the smell of those fresh loaves of bread with their dark brown crust; sliced into half inch thick pieces and pillowy soft to the touch. We call them Hainanese bread, a throwback to grandpa’s origin and the fact that most Hainanese who came to Malaya opened kopitiams or in food and beverage business.
Fast forward a few decades later, and the “ting ting” man is a rarity.

Nowadays, children buy their snacks from hypermarkets, grocery stores or what appears to be more common; leaving the shopping task to the parents and enjoying that brief excitement only when opening the bags filled with potato chips, chocolates and sweets.

I chanced upon Ban Guan Foong bakery in Pasir Pinji a year and a half back. Just looking at the exterior, I was filled with doubt.

Is this really a bakery or is this someone’s home?!

The facade sure is misleading; the front half of the shop looks more like a private residence (which I don’t doubt it is); with bikes parked in a compound without any fencing or a proper gate. An elderly woman on her lazy chair is watching a TVB drama on the telly, and a few men are engaging in small talk over dinner.

If it was not for Mum, I might have left or zoomed past the traditional bakery.

The Goh family and the bakery that has been in operation for more than half a century

For more than half a century, the Goh family has been passionately baking their signature gigantic loaves of Hainanese bread; at least an adult man’s arm’s length and sufficient for a good 8 to 10 slices.

The extremely soft texture of the bread makes for a great accompaniment to a cup of hot coffee or Milo; or slathered with a cold slab of butter and generous portion of aromatic kaya (coconut and egg jam).

You should also try toasting them over charcoal-fuelled fire or simply in a conventional toaster (you may need to tell the man to slice the bread into thinner slices for that though); to harden the crust for a crisp finish that I personally enjoy.

Ban Guan Foong bakes about a hundred loaves per day; scaled down drastically from the golden years where the community embraced traditional breads and buns more than the overly-processed and enhanced with various additives-white bread so commonly found today.

Try their coconut buns for the fillings are cooked from scratch and very tasty (left). The owners of Ban Guan Foong Bakery are more than happy to tell their story to visitors (right)

With commercial brands flooding the market featuring funky flavours and outdoing one another by cutting margins from mass production and almost guerrilla-like marketing, the death of traditional Hainanese bread may soon be imminent.

Ban Guan Foong bakes excellent coconut buns too; filled with toasted, sweetened desiccated coconut which they make from scratch.

The unforgettable aroma of walking in into Ban Guan Foong still lingers to this very day; the exact same happy memory of buying a loaf from the “ting ting” man, untying the raffia string and smelling that lovely fresh bread smell from within the pack.

The premise is a house-bakery hybrid that one might just zoom past without a second glance

Both my grandparents have died, but I am sure they would have been proud to read about this classic bakery in Pasir Pinji that has supplied countless loaves of Hainanese bread to the neighbourhood since the 60s.

James Tan loves good food and blogs at Motormouth From Ipoh (www.j2kfm.com)

BAN GUAN FOONG BAKERY
50, Jalan Sultan,
31550 Pasir Pinji, Ipoh, Perak.
Tel No : +605-3213 891
Opens from 7.30pm onwards (Mon-Fri)
Opens from 4pm onwards (Sun)
Closed on Saturdays.