Food has always been one of the defining
elements in a culture. Fortunately for us, Filipinos, every nook and cranny of our
seven thousand and one hundred seven islands are jam packed with cuisine and
specialties that have captivated the taste buds of not only the natives but
also foreigners alike.
And among these groups of delicacies,
nothing tastes sweeter and churns up sweet memories than those that
you’ve grown up with. And if you grew up in the 90s, then we have a nice
surprise for you, because today, we’ll be taking that short trip down memory
lane to remember the taste of the food back from the 20th century.
So read on and enjoy!
Chocolate & Cookies
Chocolates and Cookies are probably the
most popular snacks that children can have. They usually act as “baon” to most children since a lot of
people have the impression that chocolates and cookies are less “junky”
compared to chips and other forms of sweets. During the 90’s, popular chocolate
treats include: the Tora-Tora, which
are round chocolate covered biscuits which became popular during the 1990’s because
it came bundled with a simple toy that kids use together with the chocolate
snack itself; and Flat tops which are
pure chocolate delights shaped like tablets.
There are also treats like Jack&Jill’s Pretzels which are pretzels covered in
chocolate. Jack&Jill’s pretzels gained popularity because of the creative
packaging that the snack has which ranges from simple puzzles to more
complicated cut outs. On a similar note there’s Mejji’s Yanyan, another pretzel snack. But unlike Jack&Jill’s version,
these plain pretzels which are dunked in chocolate syrup placed inside the cup
of the product.
And lastly, there’s the very famous iced
gem biscuit that I’m sure anyone can recognize. They’re small bite-sized
biscuits with colourful icing twirls on top. It’s a very nice type of biscuit
because the icing on top gives it a little bit of extra sweetness and of course
that much needed color.
Candies
Aside from Chocolates and cookies, life as
a kid wouldn’t be complete without candies. Candies have been around since the
age of the early Mayan civilization (around 250 BC, or somewhere near that).
The form and taste of candies have continued to evolve throughout the years.
And the 90s is no exception. During this decade the most notable and memorable
candies would probably be Magic Dust, white rabbit, hawhaw and peter’s butter
ball.
Children in the 1990s bought Magic Dust
primarily because of its very interesting feature when it comes in contact with
saliva. It is actually two types of candies packaged as one, the first
component was a foot shaped lollipop which is dunked in a powdered mixture that
pops when it touches your mouth and reacts with saliva. There’s also Peter’s
butterball, a spherical candy made out of sugar rush worthy caramel.
And there’s the milk and cream flavoured
candies – white rabbit and hawhaw. White rabbit’s popularity is mainly
attributable to the edible translucent wrapping that covers the candy. Hawhaw
on the other hand are rectangular candies made out of compacted powdered milk
(and maybe sugar). These two candies are still available in the market today
but you have to look hard as they’re not that very popular in big supermarkets
anymore.
Bubble Gums and soft treats
Now if you’re more like the kid who’s crazy
about making a huge bubble from gum, then you’ll surely remember bazooka,
cherry gum balls, yakee, nougat, orange swits and langka and ube candies.
Bazooka, texas and yakee are the chewing
gum of the 90s. Bazooka is that pink rectangular bubble gum that kind of looks
like a laundry bar soap. It has small comic inlays which most kids won’t even
dare to read. Cherry gum balls, in contrast to Bazooka are spherical in shape
and are not individually packed. They are usually sold piece per piece in Sari-Sari stores where they are placed in big plastic or glass jars. Children
would usually ask for it to be placed in a small plastic bag when they bought
it because the red color easily wears off and leaves a red coloration in their
hands. Yakee on the other hand is the original sour candy. It comes in a
variety of colors but tastes relatively the same – sour.
Nougat as the name implies are nougat
candies. They are white and are wrapped in white glossy plastic with blue
labels. There’s an image of a peanut in the cover that signifies its peanut
content. Then there are Orange swits, which are jelly candies similar in
texture to today’s potchi and gummy worms. They’re colored orange and are
loosely covered in sugar crystals.
And finally there’s Annie’s Ube and Langka
candy. These are basically pastilles with purple yam and jack fruit flavors.
They are still available in the market today, but as like other old school
candies, they’re very hard to find, especially on big supermarkets.
Chips and Crackers
If you’ve ever been a kid, you have surely
craved for chips and crackers. Risbee, Pritos Ring, PeeWee, Piknik and Richee
are the favourite cracker of Pinoys who had their childhood in the glorious
decade of the 90s. Risbee are cheese flavoured sticks that look like pretzels
while peewee are multi-flavoured chips created by Nutri snack food corp.
Then there are Pritos rings. Pritos ring
are cylindrical snacks cut into bite sized pieces which, as the name implies, are
usually eaten by kids by placing the rings in their fingers and then eating
them as if removing an actual ring from the fingers with their mouths.
And of course there’s Richee and Piknik.
Richee are milk flavoured crackers while Piknik are French fries shaped chips
that are packaged in small cans made of cardboard with metal top and bottoms.
Drinks
After all the snacks shown above, there are
also notable drinks and juices that gained popularity during that decade. Zesto,
Fanta and Mirinda are some examples. Zesto’s fruit juices were very popular in
the 90s as the favourite “baon” of kids in elementary schools. Parents usually
buy an entire box for their children for the entire week. It has a wide array of
flavours ranging from the classic orange, mango and grapes to newer flavours
like pineapple, apple and guyabano.
Fanta and Mirinda are both fruit flavoured
carbonated drink which both enjoyed moderate success in the past but were
eventually left out by stronger names like Coca Cola, Pepsi, Sprite and Royal.
Other than the things shown above, I know a
lot of you also have other favourite treats from you childhood. I understand
that just like in traditional Filipino cuisine, the geographical features of the
entirety of the Philippines makes for an interesting variation in our childhood
experiences. So if you feel like it, you can give me some thoughts in the
comments section.
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social media network. Thanks!
