Let’s admit, if I wrote about childhood snacks in general, this article would end up being waaay too long.
So here’s the other half of my findings and a whole lot of nostalgic feelings:
1. Haw Flakes
Haw flakes are these addictive sweet and sour thin disc candies. My whole childhood was filled with these and every time I see it now, I just have to have it. Fun fact time! Did you know that it was called ‘Haw’ flakes because it was made out of the fruit of the Chinese hawthorn tree? You can never just have one disc and it would be more realistic to say that even one pack wouldn’t cut it.
2. Lemon Tablet
I remember this was something my brother ate all the time, and just never really stopped eating. This tablets come in simple little tubes, and the tablets themselves would emit a citrus-y smell as they dissolved in your mouth. The taste? Sweet, tangy, and salty goodness, also really great for sneaking into classes and sharing them with friends. Oh yeah, don’t bite them as soon as you put them in your mouth.
3. White Rabbit Cream Candy
I loved the fact that the inner wrapper was edible as a child. Did you know that those wrappers are actually made of edible rice cellophane? So why bother unwrapping it when you can just eat them altogether? I remember losing a few milk teeth whilst eating this candy, which beats my father’s way of pulling out teeth; tying it to the door and slamming it. Thank you White Rabbit for making my childhood slightly less painful.
OH MY GOD WHAT IS THIS AND WHERE CAN I GET THIS?!
4. Choki Choki
These epic chocolate tubes are extremely prevalent in my childhood. If anything, I’d have to say this is my ultimate favourite childhood snack. Who else used to hide these in their pencil box and sneak a little into our mouth in between classes? Also, admit it; you would put the entire tube in your mouth and suck it dry because you didn’t want to waste any of the chocolate goodness.
5. Ice Pops
Ice Pops are the best snack to have during a hot Malaysian day – which is almost everyday, and if anything, they were more popular in the 80’s than when I was around in the 90s. These ice pops were made out of flavoured-drinks, frozen in long plastic tubes and can be found outside of school gates when the roti-man wait for us to demolish all his snacks after school. And it was reaaally cheap too; about 10 cents when my older siblings were in school and About 20 cents when I was consuming it.
6. Sugus
This was my brother’s addiction. He would buy an entire container of it and consume it by the end of the day. I’ve always wondered how he didn’t somehow get diabetes. These snacks were basically juicy, chewy squares wrapped up and packed in a tube. However, like my brother, you can also buy them in massive containers. Every time I robbed my brother of a few, I enjoyed how it always got stuck in between my teeth. Fun fact! Sugus is a palindrome, because it’s spelt the same forwards and also backwards.
7. Tora & Ding Dang
These boxes of wafer balls coated with chocolate was one of the most popular childhood snacks and probably one of the big reasons why we’d go the pasar malams as a kid. And don’t lie, you loved these because of the toys it came with, probably the same reason why we spend money on overpriced Kinder eggs today as adults. We can’t stop the habit of buying food that came with toys (I mean look at some of the crazy McDonalds toy fads). Fun fact! Tora and Ding Dang are actually siblings manufacture by the same parent company; Kinos.
8. Eyeglass Candy
I’d call these candies the cheaper version of Smarties. But as a child, the cool part was slotting in rubber bands in the holes at the side and voila! You have a pair of eyeglasses. These also came in the shape of a flower or a butterfly, but everyone always got the typical eyeglass ones. The chocolate isn’t the best either, but who cares when you can have cool DIY glasses made from it!
9. Marukawa Bubble Gum
I secretly go to children parties as a present-day adult with my nephew just for these bubble gums. And not only did it provide awesome bubble-blowing fun, but the black bear ones came with cool tattoos. Bringing it to school was also a sign of rebelling because it was banned due to students sticking it all over the place.
10. Teddy Biscuits
Who else ate the head first and made fake screaming noises, pretending to be the headless bear, as a child? No? Just psycho little me? Ok.
11. Nano Nano
I have to say, Nano Nano is one of the candies I came across whilst researching and went “Oh my god. This” because I have not heard its name in years, and only have vague memories of it. One of it being the funny expression I made when the sour part hit my taste bud. Also, who else remembers the jingle?
12. Yupi Gummi Burger
Yupi Gummis came in many different forms but the burger one has to be a childhood favourite. There are also many ways to consume this gummy bliss; you can combine all the middle slices made one tall burger, or you can just eat it like a normal peasant. Or be weird like me and pull it apart, and eat them piece by piece. There’s also the more common Yupi Gummy Bears, consumed the same way we eat anything bear-shaped; biting its head, arms and legs off first. Or biting its head off, biting another bear’s body, and splicing it together. No? Just me again? I’m starting to think I need a doctor. My friends have already begun consuming vegan gummies, and I think its high time I also do the same. See this review on The Green Forks for the best Vegan Gummy Bears!
13. Push Pops
These messy candies are great because we can be gross and save half-eaten candies – only for them to melt onto other things because of the Malaysian heat. You also get all sticky from pushing out the candy from the bottom but it was worth it because child you could pretend to be classy by putting it on your lips like it was lipstick.
14. Nyam Nyam
Nyam Nyam has been a part of our childhood before Nutella came in. The Nyam Nyam was familiar with were the biscuit sticks that you can dip in the chocolate whilst others would be more nostalgic with Nyam Nyam’s Rice Crispy.
15. Jelly Cups
Before frat boys and girls made it famous by infusing it with vodka in movies, we had regular, non-alcoholic jelly cups. Now, I’m not sure what it’s actually called but I’m sure the image above would jog some memories. All you had to do to consume this jelly heaven was just to peel off the top wrapper and gobble the entire thing. Of course it was better off cold, but when we were kids, it didn’t matter. In fact, it still doesn’t matter.
16. Pop Rocks
These snacks weren’t on many lists but I came across it whilst looking at other snacks, and I just couldn’t leave it out. I remember the first time I had these, I didn’t know what it did and when it popped in my mouth, I swear, I lost my shit for a bit. Hilariously, all I could think at the time was “is this legal?” and “am I going to die?”.
Now, who else wants to get out and find some of these… like right now?
