Everyone of us will sure have some fond memories of our glorious past. And at certain point in our life (usu during mid life like I am now), we tends to have a "period" (guys and gals apply;pun intended) where we enjoy reminiscing the good old days. As age catching up, one tends to reminisce more than before.
Friends of mine who visited me at my house knows how much I like to keep old vintage & retro stuff. This is my precious SINGER sewing machine mummy left me with (you can still see the two old oil lamps mummy left me too) displayed in my living hall....
These are some nice "old" stuff that laid in my store room... And I managed to dig them out while cleaning up the house few years ago....
The two bottles of tea you saw above, are what I bought during my secondary school's field trip to Cameron. And it is still around nicely shrink wrapped.
And all these stuff are nicely display on my shelving at my dining hall, each with its own stories to tell...
Beside enjoying keeping these little old stuff of mine.... I love to explore "old taste" too. Recently, I started to explore on traditional candy making recipe.... and I start to like the idea of replicating some of these "old feel" too with some old equipments used during those earlier days.... I am playing with my childhood candy... Ding Ding Candy (叮叮糖).
It all started when I was a kid. I still remember daddy and mummy bringing me to shopping while buying ding ding candy at Chinatown. Somehow the memory of this old uncle selling the candy stays with me till now. i remember this old uncle who used to sell a kind of "poh pia" look-alike candy in an old tin too, on the sheltered-bridge leading to the chinatown OG. If my memories didn't fail me... he was selling ding ding candy too.
Few years ago during a leisure photo taking trip to Melaka with my friend Anasri Oon, I saw this old man at Jonker street...
Once again... i inspired and told myself... this is what I wanted to do one day when i grow old.... Yes... I wanted to be the sweet man that makes the world sweeter with our childhood taste!
The past few years while I was travelling in and out China (due to work and leisure), whenever I see street vendor selling ding ding candy, i never fail to buy them and try.
Interestingly, ding ding candy, even thou sharing the same name, having the same look (somehow), and having the same familiar ding-ding motion of chiselling the candy... it doesn't taste the same from one country to another... and even in the same country, it taste very different from one uncle to another. And after much research with rounds of trial-and-error.. Finally... we came out with a balanced recipe at my little lolly shop....
(Photo taken few year back by me at Xuzhou, China)
Interestingly, ding ding candy, even thou sharing the same name, having the same look (somehow), and having the same familiar ding-ding motion of chiselling the candy... it doesn't taste the same from one country to another... and even in the same country, it taste very different from one uncle to another. And after much research with rounds of trial-and-error.. Finally... we came out with a balanced recipe at my little lolly shop....
At my little lolly shop, we finally comes to recipe we feel would suits the local taste buds yet maintaining some of the "retro-taste".
Some trivia fact you might not have noticed... do you know that ding ding candy contains ginger?
hahahah... i doubt you noticed. When I was a kid, I think i myself was too busy trying to get the candy that stuck between my teeth separated than to notice the presence of ginger.
(above photo source from the internet)
Also the fact that the traditional way preparing it, some of the ding ding candy loses its ginger strength due to the process used in the preparation.
Sometimes knowledge does kill the fun a bit. After consulting some TCM, we have managed to modify the cooking process to such that we retain the goodness of ginger yet maintaining the taste of the candy at a optimal condition. (but that also means the ding ding candy might not be that yellowish in comparison).
Sometimes knowledge does kill the fun a bit. After consulting some TCM, we have managed to modify the cooking process to such that we retain the goodness of ginger yet maintaining the taste of the candy at a optimal condition. (but that also means the ding ding candy might not be that yellowish in comparison).
Some health benefit of ginger you might not know before, and of course, these are the health benefit of my ding ding candy we make at LollyTalk too...
(Extract from "Food Matters; You are what you eat"... 10 healing benefits of Ginger... with some additional comments)
----
1. Ginger allows you to regulate your appetite and fire up the digestive juices.
2. Ginger improves the absorption and assimilation of essential nutrients in the body.
3. Ginger clears the ‘microcirculatory channels’ of the body, including the pesky sinuses that tend to flare up from time to time.
4. Ginger helps when feeling airsick or nauseous? Preferably tossed in a little honey.
5. Ginger helps reduce flatulence! (Something that always work for us working at my little lolly shop)
6. Comfort tummy moaning and groaning under cramps. (Some lady friends of mine can vow to that!)
7. Reeling under joint pain? Ginger, with its anti-inflammatory properties—can bring relief. Float some ginger essential oil in your bath to help aching muscles and joints. (errr... don't try soaking our ding ding candy thou)
8. Chewing ginger post-operation can help overcome nausea.
9. Ginger gets rid of throat and nose congestion. And when there’s a nip in the air, the warming benefits of this tasty tea are even greater!
10. Bedroom blues? Try adding a gingery punch to a bowl of soup. (Psst...the Ayurvedic texts credit ginger with aphrodisiac properties)- ermmm... can you believe? Ding Ding candy having aphrodisiac properties?
------
The traditional ding ding candy tends to be more yellowish due to the over-cooked ginger. The ding ding candy over at my little lolly shop (LollyTalk) is a bit more whitish... interestingly, the white appearance of the lollies are obtained by working the sugar on the hooks... another word... it DOESN'T USE ANY COLOURINGS... this make our Ding Ding candy truly all natural.
Why do i say "truly"? because I am never an advocate of fully natural candy due to many reasons (i can write another 10 pages blog talking about the marketing gimmick behind "all natural"), but some candy in supermarket tends to claim they are fully natural while using citrus acid in making their sweet... pretty amusing to me since citrus acid is not a natural ingredients at all. While some factories use citrus acid in their sweet, yet they still says its "fully natural"... BUT hor... my DING DING CANDY DOESN'T CONTAIN CITRUS ACID! hahahah... so that makes our Ding Ding Candy a "truly" all-natural candy! Beside the Ding Ding Candy, we do have a range known as ATC series too that contains natural ingredients with some (such as Honey Lemon) using natural colourings too.
Why do i say "truly"? because I am never an advocate of fully natural candy due to many reasons (i can write another 10 pages blog talking about the marketing gimmick behind "all natural"), but some candy in supermarket tends to claim they are fully natural while using citrus acid in making their sweet... pretty amusing to me since citrus acid is not a natural ingredients at all. While some factories use citrus acid in their sweet, yet they still says its "fully natural"... BUT hor... my DING DING CANDY DOESN'T CONTAIN CITRUS ACID! hahahah... so that makes our Ding Ding Candy a "truly" all-natural candy! Beside the Ding Ding Candy, we do have a range known as ATC series too that contains natural ingredients with some (such as Honey Lemon) using natural colourings too.
I guess even thou with all the health benefit of ginger added into my ding ding candy.... i must still honestly say something... no matter how good a food is... please eat with moderation.
Beside the difference in appearance, my Ding Ding Candy have a stronger taste of ginger too due to the difference in the cooking process to retain the goodness of ginger. Generally the feedback is pretty good thou occasionally, so auntie complain ginger not enough and some youth complain ginger too strong. But I personally think we are "just nice".
Another difference is the texture. Our ding ding candy is slightly less sticky compared to the traditional ones. Is out of intention since nowadays we are more cautious on our oral hygiene hence by making it less sticky, lower chances of sugar trapping in between the teeth. And also, i always feel that when a hard candy is sticky, its yucky.
Beside the difference in appearance, my Ding Ding Candy have a stronger taste of ginger too due to the difference in the cooking process to retain the goodness of ginger. Generally the feedback is pretty good thou occasionally, so auntie complain ginger not enough and some youth complain ginger too strong. But I personally think we are "just nice".
Another difference is the texture. Our ding ding candy is slightly less sticky compared to the traditional ones. Is out of intention since nowadays we are more cautious on our oral hygiene hence by making it less sticky, lower chances of sugar trapping in between the teeth. And also, i always feel that when a hard candy is sticky, its yucky.
I am doing a giveaway... like all my good-blogger-shifus (teachers who guided me in blogging) who always shared with me about blogging experience... try doing some giveaways to reward thosefans who supported my blog... So here goes my first give-aways....
Now is the chance... you will be given 6 packets of Ding Ding Candy if you LIKE my little lolly shop's Facebook page (LollyTalk's Facebook page)...
http://www.facebook.com/lollytalksg
LIKE the Ding Ding Candy FB page...
http://www.facebook.com/dingdinglolly
LIKE the Ding Ding Candy FB page...
http://www.facebook.com/dingdinglolly
Follow my little lollyshop's Instagram page @LollyTalk ...
Once you done the above three... email me... sweetman@lollytalk.com with
your particulars (instagram id, Facebook id, full name, contact number, valid email)
The first ten (10) person who does the above mentioned can win for yourself six (6) packets of Ding Ding Candy, compliments of the Sweetman of LollyTalk*... so what you waiting for?
*Terms and conditions apply. All prizes to be collected at my little lolly shop.
More instruction/information will be given in my email when I reply you shortly after you send me the details. Only the first 10 person walk away with the free Ding Ding Candy I made! :)
Visit DingDingCandy.com or Ding Ding Candy by LollyTalk Facebook page for more information about Ding Ding Candy by LollyTalk. You can also find out more from LollyTalk's Website or LollyTalk's Facebook page.
Thanks for the overwhelming responses for the giveaways. For those that have received an email confirmation would have gotten the details of the collection. We have extended the numbers of recipients so as long as you gotten a confirmation, congrats. See you soon!
ReplyDeletehead and lower it into the cabinet. light machine oil
ReplyDelete