Vanishing Trades

1)The moive man, the opera mask maker, the broom pedlar, the wandering story-teller, the tick-tock mee boy, the mobile satay hawker, the tng chang popiah hawker and other tradesmen like them came to singapore during difficult times.

2)Today, these men who once provide cheap goods and services have almost disappeared from our streets. A few of them have managed to survive as a tourist attractions.

3)Much of the magic of the past has been lost, but those who were children in the fifties and sixties will not forget the hawkers from whom they bought food. Some still crave for the white-rock  malt candy , chipped from a pan with a metal wedge and hammer.

4)An old ting-ting man who still sells this malt candy says he leaned the special skill of making in china. He stress that it is important to mix the malt sugar and the white sugar in exactly and right proportions. It is also necessary to cook it and cool it in the good old-fashioned way in a basin of cool water. Then it must be perfectly stretched to achieve it traditional white colour. In the fast pace of mechanised and industrial singapore, it is little wonder that the ting-ting man is vanishing.

5)Malt candy also sold by the tng chang popiah hawker. For just 20 cents, you get a generous spoonful of sugar and ground peanuts covered with a piece of popiah skin. It is good to know that this was once a delicacy offered to the gods of Old China.

6)The ice-ball hawker, the favourite of hot,thirsty childrenon the way home from school, has vanished altogether. Many who are adults now probably cherish memories of juggling the cold ice-balls while slurping the syrup. Today's answer to ice-balls is ice-kacang that melts on a plate,not in the hands.

7)The kacang putih hawker who sells kacang putih or nuts can still be seen.He continues  to exchange cone-shaped packets of nuts for old exercise books. He uses the pages to make a small bag for the nuts: cashew nuts, corn, peanuts, groundnuts or the favourite kacang putih or" white(sugar- coated) nuts".

8)The familiar tick-tock sounds made by the mee boy with his chopsticks and bamboo slab as he went around to take orders for his steaming bowlsof noodles are no longer heard. The satay hawker with his tray of meat sticks and pot of coal fire on a pole slung on his shouler has also vanished.these itinerant hawkers have since replaced by stallholders at busy food centres, but thier memory lives on . Stallholders are still kown as "hawkers" and the area where stalls are gathered is called a"hawker centre".