old woodlands centre

had breakfast with victor at the food centre at old woodlands centre. the prata stall located at the end nearer to the exit of the car-park is popular enough for the pratas to be sold out by around 10 a.m. each day. the draw is the sardine gravy - for which the stallholder charges 40 cents per serving. if you want just the curry, it comes gratis with the pratas/murtabaks.

i had intended to recommend the prata from that stall to victor, instead i found out that he is a regular patron of that stall. he even knows the original owner of the stall, the father of the present owner. in my case, it was jameela, my former admiralty colleague, who introduced the stall to me.

when the bus interchange was moved from old woodlands centre to causeway point, i had thought the place would become quieter. how wrong i have been. the place is thriving as well as before, with sheng shiong attracting the housewives and the food centre pulling in the malaysian workers. the money changers here offer better rates (for malaysian ringgit) than those in other parts of singapore.

still, there have been a few casualties. one is the them is the woodlands cinema. with the opening of cineplexes at causeway point, the old cinema died a natural death. according to victor, it is probably being used by some church groups. one section of it houses a kindergarten.

the macdonald's adjacent to the old cinema is definitely much quieter than it was during its heyday in the 70s. this used to be our meeting point for our many self-drive holidays in peninsular malaysia.