5 Mama Shop Snacks Every Singaporean Kid Ate

The five

1. Whistle candy. Half of Singapore learned to whistle on these, which was never the point of a sweet and is exactly why it worked. 2. Biscuit piring wafers. Green, pink and yellow, and we will die on the hill that they were different flavours. Pink was the best. 3. Muruku ikan. The one you cannot stop eating, in the paper packet with the fish on it. 4. Pola Snack. Long red and yellow sticks, and the whole ritual was checking which animal you got. 5. Popping candy. ASMR before anyone had the word for it.

Why the mama shop mattered more than the snack

It was the first place a kid spent their own money without a parent standing there. Twenty cents, a decision, a transaction. The stock was whatever the uncle decided to stock, so what you ate was partly determined by the shop nearest your block, which is why two people the same age can have completely different lists. That is also why nobody agrees on a definitive five.

Most of these are still findable

Muruku ikan and Pola Snack still turn up in Malaysian supermarkets and the older provision shops here. Popping candy never went anywhere, it just moved into the convenience store. Whistle candy and the piring wafers are the harder two, and when you do find them they are usually in a Johor supermarket rather than a Singapore one. If you like this sort of thing, our Jurong childhood piece is the same wavelength.

FAQs

What is a mama shop?

A small provision shop in an HDB estate, usually one room with everything stacked on shelves, that sold snacks, drinks and household bits before convenience store chains took over.

What is muruku ikan?

A crunchy Malaysian fish-flavoured snack sold in small paper packets, one of the most common mama shop items.

Can you still buy these snacks?

Some. Muruku ikan, Pola Snack and popping candy still turn up in Malaysian supermarkets and older provision shops. Whistle candy and piring wafers are much harder to find.

Were the piring wafers different flavours?

Officially they are usually the same. Everyone who ate them as a child disagrees.