For those old enough to remember the Ting Ting man will surely look back at those days with sweet nostalgia. He sold a kind of
hardened maltose candy in an aluminium tray which had to be chipped off by a chisel and hence the sound "ting ting". Kids would run out to buy those sweet morsels as the Ting Ting man puts them into little packets. I was one of these eager kids whose eyes lit up on hearing that familiar chiselling sound.
And at the night market at Jonker Walk, Malacce last weekend, I saw a stall selling an updated version of the candy with various flavours - wheat grass, mint, gincer, sour plum and more. The ting ting man of yesteryear only had one flavour but his accompanying music had a special flavour that couldn't be replicated. I bought different types and the best was the mint. A few stalls away was an old man selling maltose candy too which looked closer to the real thing. His stall displayed a newspaper cutting that showed how he sold his ting ting sweets from house to house back in those days with his chisel, aluminium tray and stand.Today, his sweets are pre-packaged in big packets of 5 riggits. His candy tasted good and even better with an updated mint flavour. I should have bought more and taken a picture with him. Perhaps next time in my next weekend trip to Malacca.
Another favourite street snack of mine was muah chee which costs at least $3 at a stall in a mall in Singapore but here in Malacca, it costs only 2 or 3 riggits. Just as the signboard says, muah chee is made of glutinous rice pounded into a paste and coated with sesame and peanuts. Simple yet delicious as a snack.
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| Maltose sweets in a variety of flavours |
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| Muah chee, a family favourite ! |
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| It says on the board Hainanese mua chee. |
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