Remember The Nostalgic Ice Ball Street Snack? You Can Still Find It In A S'pore Food Court
The frozen dessert is as basic as it can get: shaved ice tightly packed into a ball and drizzled with colourful syrups. To save folks from freezing their fingers off holding the ice ball barehanded, the hawkers would also insert a string so that customers can hold it up and slowly savour the melting ice.
As our parents can attest, it was very messy to eat. And sometimes, if you’re unlucky, the ice ball melts faster than you can eat and falls apart, leading to much tears and dismay.
But, like VCD and DVD players, the ice ball soon became a relic. Diners shunned a dessert pawed all over by the hawker as he deftly worked the coarse ice shavings into an orb. A dessert auntie who used to sell ice balls in the ’60s told 8days.sg that the long hours of handling ice were hell for her hands, and she eventually stopped selling it.
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You can still find ice balls in 2024
The somehow modern substitute for ice balls is ice kacang, which also has syrup-flavoured shaved ice heaped on a bowl.
But surprisingly, you can still find ice balls at a ‘retro’ dessert pushcart at City Square mall’s Food Republic. The food court, which was revamped earlier this year and now sports a nostalgic look, recreates the experience of roadside dining in the ’50s and ’60s.
Netizen Marilyn Tan shared her old-school discovery on Facebook group Heritage SG Food, where she wrote about her memories of eating the ice ball.
Having grown up in Katong helping out her grandmother, a prawn noodle hawker, Marilyn recalled asking the ice kacang hawker next to her grandma’s stall to make her an ice ball.
“The elderly man, nearly bald, clad in striped pyjamas, and a translucent white shirt, was startled by my persistent request. His thick grey and white brows furrowed, his large weathered eyes flickered with surprise. After a brief hesitation, he relented. Shaping the ice into a perfect sphere was challenging for his aged hands. Dousing it carefully with condensed milk and drizzled with colourful syrups. When he handed it to me, it felt almost magical. A sweet, icy indulgence and pure bliss,” she shared.
“Thankfully, the iceball wasn’t lost to time. Though the price had risen, savouring it under the neon lights with replicated retro furnishings, reminiscent of the old New World amusement park I used to visit, was a nostalgic delight. The fleeting moment of relishing the ice ball rekindled memories that time couldn't erase,” Marilyn wrote poetically.
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