Friday 2 January 2015

Traditional Singaporean Childhood Snacks




Mama Shop


A mama shop is a basic provision shop commonly located at void decks and they sell an assortment of sundry items, canned products, candies and newspapers. Mama shops were originally owned and operated by Indian immigrants but it is not uncommon to see owners from other communities. A mama shop could also take the form of a standalone kiosk. 

However, mama shops face increasingly stiff competition from rivals such as supermarkets and the lack of demand from the younger generation; the younger generation see mama shops as dirty and less classy as compared to the supermarkets.



Nowadays, traditional tidbits can be found in supermarkets and convenience shops in shopping malls across the island.

These traditional tidbits include:
Tasty biscuits, Apollo Chocolate Wafers, Long Ice Popsicles, Gem biscuits, Meiji Yan Yan cream dips, White Rabbit Sweets, Mamee noodles, Ringpops, Whistling candy, Potato Wheels, Hawflakes, Biscuit piring wafers and many more...


Gem biscuits


The real name is Iced Gems and they were first made in 1850s (the biscuit part) by biscuit manufacturers Huntley and Palmers in Reading, Berkshire. Like many inventions, they were an accidental discovery as these biscuits shrunk during a biscuit experimentation. The inventors started selling them as Gems and added icing later on.

The biscuits are known in Singapore as Biskut Ais Jem or as some call it, the Belly Button Biscuits.The gems found in Singapore have neon coloured icing in green, pink, yellow, white and orange. As a kid, I would eat the biscuits first and save the icing bits to savour at a later time.



Meiji Yan Yan biscuit sticks with flavoured creams

The portable snack is great to bring on activities and allows children to have the snacks anywhere and anytime. The Yan Yan biscuit sticks come with cute messages printed on the biscuits. The package has 2 compartments; one to hold the crackers and another compartment to hold the cream. The creams include chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, yogurt flavoured frosting or double creams.


Thank you for reading.

No comments:

Post a Comment