Before ice cream on a stick, or between bread or wafers, ice balls were the cold treat of choice for many a schoolchild in the 1960s. Shaved ice was formed into a dense ball and coated with coloured syrup and condensed milk, and eaten rather messily in one’s hands. No one seems to sell these any more, but they have recently resurfaced in the Singapore Food Trail.

Icemoon has never had the ice ball he ‘traditional’ way, and describes his first experience of the ice ball:

For dessert, I ordered …. guess what, ice ball! It was a wonderful surprise seeing Ice Ball or 冰球 advertised from this push cart (they also sold Cheng Teng). Now, this is really a 1960s dessert considered extinct in Singapore today. Before the man moulded the ice into a ball, I checked his ice shaver. Disappointingly or rather luckily, it was not the first or second generation kind blogged by Chun See.

I was a little surprised when the lady (who took over from the man) poured syrups of different colour (four of them) over the ball. Why? The first time I heard of ice ball was from my dad, many years ago. We were buying Chendol from Hollywood Desserts at Bedok Interchange Food Centre (back then it was probably called Hawker Centre) and he told me he used to buy from them outside Hollywood Cinema at Tanjong Katong. I think he was a student then so it must be during mid or late 1960s. He added that last time nobody ate the dessert like today, in a bowl full of ice. The form then was the ice ball, to be eaten cupped in your palms. I agreed with the logic then because Hollywood served quite big portion with solid coconut milk, beans and sugar; it was Herculean trying to finish their Chendol to the last drop. From then on, I associated the Ice Ball with Chendol.

The ice ball is only one of the Singapore heritage food that Icemoon sampled in the Singapore Food Trail. To read more about his visit, read here.