I have got plenty of snacks over the weekend and decided that macro shots of these snacks will be nice. So, these few days I will feature snacks from yesteryears.
This is the kacang putih. In the old, old days, long before the availability of MSG, salt, colourings, preservatives and artificial flavoruings laden junk foods, kacang putih rules.
These were usually sold by Indian migrants who peddled their old Raleigh bicycles from villages to villages. The varieties of legumes sold by them were massive. They had red, brown, green and yellow kacang putihs.
There weren’t any plastic bags then. So, these kacang putihs were sold in conical shaped papers. One just need to roll up papers (usually old telephone directories) into a cone and fill it with the nuts.
A little googling brought up this info on the goodness of chickpeas (kacang putih):
If chick-peas (also known as garbanzos or ceci) aren’t a regular part of your diet, you’re missing out on one of nature’s truly perfect foods. Inside these cream-colored, mild-flavored, marble-size legumes, you’ll find hefty amounts of protein (but very little fat), slow-burning complex carbohydrates, fiber (including the soluble fiber that may lower cholesterol), B vitamins–especially folate (folic acid)–and minerals. The phytochemicals in chick-peas include isoflavones and protease inhibitors.
So go crunch some kacang putih today. Do you miss any snacks from yesteryears? You can let me know and if I can find them, I will buy, take a photo, blog and eat it!
Thanks Lilian, I have not had kacang putih for a long time. Now I am itching to go get some from the Indian man.
i lv kacang putih but cant get that kind here, haiyah! miss malaysian food too much lah!
Thanks for the info, proteins, I need proteins! Will have to get from the arabs – no indian man selling kacang putih here.
i prefer those green peas. 🙂 mor crunchy n not powdery like this kacang putih.
hah cool! what an incentive to eat kacang putih. i saw on oprah once (yo i think i watch too much oprah), a good diet includes a handful of any type of legume per day.
q – Yeah, I read about that too. Suppose to give healthier heart.
Yvy – That green colour ones usually very oily ler. I like this powdery one, less guilt. 🙂
Mrs B – I think supermarkets also sell them under the Kiki brand?
Wuching – Fly back and eat lor.
boo – Hope you find the kacang.
just had kacang puteh today..
we put the kacang puteh inside our chicken curry ..
nice taste 😉
Other snacks (candy surely) from yesteryear would be be ‘ting ting’ candy. You remember it is white, hard candy in a big tray and the vendor would knock off small pieces for you. Usually they would also sell you ‘mak ngah tong’ (molasses) sticky, sweet twirled unto a stick.
[…] Back in the 80s, an original cassette tape cost RM12. So to buy one would mean that I’d have to forgo a drink during lunch for a little more than two weeks. Either that or I eat kacang putih as lunch and save up quicker. Buying a tape required some sacrifices. […]