It is always fun to reminisce about the past, particularly when it comes to food. These snacks may still be available nowadays but sometimes the flavour of memories is more appealing than the actual snacks themselves. With that in mind, here is a list of 10 classic Malaysian snacks you most probably will recognize if you spent your childhood somewhere during the ‘90s (or even earlier!).
1. Nyam Nyam Fantasy Sticks and Nini Dip Sticks
Nini coklat celup, Nini coklat celup~ I bet you can hear this commercial song playing in your head right now if you are a true ‘90s kid. Both Nini Dip Sticks and Nyam Nyam Fantasy Sticks used to be very regular back in the day. Not saying that they are nowhere to be found now, but hey, kids these days are no longer familiar with the legendary ‘coklat celup’ song, right?
2. Ding Dang, Tora and JoJo
These three are grouped together because they are basically the same – a box filled with biscuits or some such as well as toys. I’m sure we can all agree that the main attraction of these boxes were never the snacks. Instead, we spent our allowances on these boxes in order to collect the toys. Even now, you can still find a few online shops selling these boxes for the sake of nostalgia.
3. Sugus
I’m a regular fan of Sugus but now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t know what is so special with this particular candy. It’s definitely popular in its own rights, though. Maybe Sugus’ reputation as a classic Malaysian candy is owed to its affordable price coupled with the unusual square shape as well as its chewiness. If you miss the fruity flavour of this candy, I am sure you can still get it at the nearest convenience stores around you.
4. Aiskrim Malaysia
This homemade ice cream is the simplest yet can arguably be labelled as the most well-known classic Malaysian ‘snacks’ – that is if you count ice cream as one. The flavours used to be very simple: milo, corn, strawberry as well as a few others. Nowadays, there are viral recipes of Aiskrim Malaysia floating around on the Internet. Try it out sometime when you feel bored!
5. Big Foot and Great Monster Candy
I used to be a teeny bit obsessed with these candies mainly because I was fascinated at their seemingly-magical abilities to change the colour of my tongue. Plus, the monster illustrations on each of the Great Monster’s candies are cool to look at. Not to mention Big Foot’s weird and unusual choice of using the foot shape for their candy. Considering the fact that these candies were pretty famous among kids back in the day, I guess it really pays to stand out from the rest.
6. Eyeglass Candy
As far as I remember, there’s nothing really special about the taste of this candy but the eyeglass shape may be a reason as to why it stayed as a regular in a lot of convenience stores’ counters around the late ‘90s until the early ‘00s. After all, it is pretty fun to pop the candy one by one until the whole eyeglass is empty.
7. Tam Tam and MiMi Snack
Did you know that these two classic Malaysian snacks are from the same company? Because I sure don’t. Both of these are crab and prawn flavoured respectively and are produced by a company called Snek Ku. The company also produced a number of other snacks but Tam Tam and MiMi remain their most famous products.
8. Super Ring
This cheese-flavoured snack is still famous up until today. Even though the packaging has undergone a little bit of an update, the snack still receives the love that it deserves from kids and grown-ups alike.
9. Teddy Biscuit
The chocolate teddy biscuits taste and look great. What else can I say? Sometimes all you need is to be able to spell out your feelings with a bag of adorable-looking teddy biscuits with alphabets on their bodies.
10. Iced Gem Biscuits
To be honest, I am not a huge fan of these biscuits. However, that does not negate the fact that they are beloved by quite a significant portion of Malaysian kids of the past, thus earning them a spot on this list of classic Malaysian snacks. The best part of these biscuits? Without a doubt, it’s the colourful icing on top.
Bonus: Wall’s Viennetta Ice Cream
The Viennetta Ice Cream had a reputation of being pricey and exclusive. It has finally returned to the Malaysian market a few years ago after being taken off the table quite a while back. If you want to take a walk down memory lane, why not buy this ice cream and enjoy it with your whole family?
So there you have it. Did you recognize all the classic snacks mentioned in the list? If you did, congratulations. You are indeed a true ’90s kid.