This 1 Singaporean Snack has 2 Names, 3 Eating Styles and 4 Colours. Know What It Is?
Pink, yellow, white, green.
These are the four colours of the icing on those biscuits you can find in Singapore. You can call them Iced Gem Biscuits or Fancy Gem Biscuits. Back in those days, just walk into any provision shop and there those gems would be — inside a metal tin which has a lid that you can only use a spoon to pry open. Usually sold by the weight, you just needed to tell the uncle or auntie how much you want. Children love this snack because of its sugary sweet top.
Now, what’s surprising is that this snack didn’t actually originate from Singapore!
They hailed from Britain and was the product of an experimentation with new biscuit technology!
Some eat the base first, so they can leave the best (i.e. the sugar) to the last, while some munch on the icing first, so that the base will neutralise the sweetness of the icing. Of course, there is the third group of people who simply pop a whole biscuit into their mouths. Those wish to have the best of both worlds at once.
These cute gems are so colourful, they brighten up our days and it is no wonder why they appealed so much to children. In fact, countries such as Australia also enjoy this snack, but theirs differ from ours in the colours and the shapes of both the icing and the biscuit base. In Singapore and Malaysia, we only have the four standard colours — no purple, no blue, etc. and the base is a little plump, without any glaze. Theirs, on the other hand, are just lightly baked and the icing is tall and spiralled.
Local stores have also transformed these gems into accessories, such as the one manufactured by The Farm Store. The iced gem biscuit is, today, an icon which Singaporeans resonate with.
You can still find them at provision shops or at supermarkets, distributed by biscuit companies like Khong Guan.
