Nostalgia in fish crackers

As a kid, I love those balls of fish crackers. I used to buy packets of them after school, and I will usually eat them by dipping each ball in chili sauce after dinner.

I am not sure if you know what I’m talking about. But they are actually some kind of keropok (crackers), and instead of those flat keropoks, these are round and hard. And they used to be so darn cheap. Like a dollar for a big bag or something like that. They are probably so outdated that I think if I were to open my mouth and ask for them, I would probably be laughed at,

That was so so long ago, and by now, those balls fish crackers are quite hard to come by. In fact, I am guilty of having forgotten about them given that I have not seen them in almost a decade.

Until I saw them at the Singapore Airport recently, and the moment I saw them, those old memories came rushing back. I thought it was a rare find, and Bengawan Solo was selling each pack at 10 bucks. Ten.Frigging.Bucks for some cheapo fish-ball crackers!

But I guess, nostalgia got the better of me, and I remember how much I used to love them. Hence, in the name of preserving some fond memories of food, I decided to suck it up and bring back a couple of packets home. (Very much to the chagrin of Silver Bullet who does not want to have anything to do with fishy stuff.)

The taste of the first few balls felt so right…and almost instantly brought me back to my childhood memories of me and my fish keropoks eaten after lunch or dinner or just as snacks. A past-time, more often than not, joined by my family members – cats included.

To date, I have finished half of the pack and transferred the other half into an air-tight container. I’ve got no competition in this area, so a few balls a day does it for me.

I wonder how much longer it would take before I devour all of them at one sitting!