Snippets on Food: William's Ice Cream Potong

Ding a ling a ling, the ice cream man is here.

Whoever doesn’t like ice cream has to have had a deprived childhood. Growing up in Singapore, the treat for me was Magnolia ice cream on a stick that’s coated with dark chocolate. It wasn’t a bar in those days and the ice cream man would come around and ring his bell.

There was also the Uncle with the scoops which would go with bread. I wasn’t allowed these at home because some of the ice cream was homemade and Grandma wasn’t having any potential tummy problems for her precious granddaughter!

And then there was ice cream potong….even more lethal in her eyes as it was ALL homemade and who knows if the maker had washed his hands or whatever other health hazards lurked in those tempting sticks.

So good ole’ “safe” Magnolia it was and I safely survived the scourge of the tummy bugs, having in the meanwhile worked for countless hotels and had my fill of designer ice creams and the ubiquitous Haagen Daz.

Until I arrived in Ipoh in 1996!

I was lunching with friends at Overseas Restaurant when someone exclaimed, “Oh the ice cream potong Uncle is here”. Upon which she dashed out and came back laden with sticks and sticks of ice cream, all loosely wrapped and melting rapidly.

I looked at the one I was handed, a special Cempedak one; and throwing aside memories of Grandma’s finger wagging admonitions of dire consequences, I bit into it.

Pure Bliss! Chock full of the fruit, held together by creamy coconut santan with a smidgen of sugar, the sweet Chempedak lending its own sweetness to the stick.

“Oh they are out of durian, not in season,” I was told before I proceeded to tuck into the Cendol Stick next. Equally delicious but not as irresistible; I made a note to place an order for Durian with this ice cream Uncle and sure enough, the next time I had that, it was everything I ever wanted in an ice cream stick.

And then Uncle disappeared. He used to appear with his bicycle, his frozen sticks on the back of it and dispensed them from opposite the RHB bank at the Greentown little roundabout and when he disappeared, I and all my friends were bereft! Rumour had it that he had left for KL where his children were.

So I forgot about ice cream potong for a long time….meanwhile tasting all the sticks that friends would shove at me to ease my bereavement. But no one came close to Uncle on a bicycle.

Until William called me one day, very excited and said I just had to taste his latest masterpiece.

William, who has stalls in both Woolley Centre and Tong Sui Kai, has been experimenting—and he has come up with ice cream potong!

I have always admired William for his creativity. I remembered what he could do with ordinary Siakap and how he could create dishes that taste like much more expensive fish and you would never guess what the fish was….all without chemicals or artificial guises. This was when he had his own restaurant Hao Xian Wei in Ipoh Garden East. But the pandemic and lockdowns took care of that and now with lower rentals, his two stalls are flourishing and with his creativity, he is either coming out with winners or beating a sharp retreat when customers aren’t responding.

Well, his ice cream potong is a sure winner. I no longer mourn the departure of Uncle on a bicycle. He’s been replaced by William at both his stalls.

William’s ice cream potong flavours at present are Durian at RM5, Cempedak at RM4, and the others which are Red Bean, Cendol and Corn are sold at RM3.

The sticks are chock full of fruit and ingredients and each lick and bite is a joyful walk into culinary heaven, giving thanks to the coconuts that gave us the Santan, the durians which have been frozen to forestall the lean seasons and all the other ingredients which have been all expertly combined to produce this one-of-a-kind deliciousness.

In my experience, no other commercial product comes close! Made with only coconut Santan and minimal sugar allowing the natural sweetness to take over, these are all made with all natural ingredients and no preservatives.

Do rush and stock up. He runs out fast. You can also order directly from William.