ICE SHAVER

The traditional and classic 50-year old ice shaver machine

A modern version of ice ball, unlike the round-shaped ones sold by Guan

A rudimentary ice shaver that serves the same purpose

Instead of ice-balls, the ice is shoved into a plastic bag before syrup is added

The two youths who allowed me to take the pictures of their ice shaver machine

The wheel and axle machine. No motor is used.

Green technology. No carbon fingerprints.

Bolt, nuts, gear and wheel and axle to shave off the ice

The once blue- coloured machine is now steel-coloured after 50 years

SNOWY ICE BALLS

It shaves the block of ice thinly and leaves behind a mound of white fine strands of flakes in the bowl. The wheel has to be turned manually for the ice to be shaved off by the blade. That's the traditional and classic ice machine of yester years. It has been replaced by electric ice shavers, which make faster ice mounds like fluffy white snow at most of our hawker centres nowadays.

Its stature, its age and durability caught my attention the minute I walked past it. I asked the youth who was selling the chendol how old the machine was. He couldn't give me the right age but estimated that the machine was easily over fifty years. It's original bright blue colour had faded, leaving behind a grey metallic surface instead.

When I was young, I remember Guan, the ice-ball seller would shave a block of ice using the same type of unmotorised machine. He sold the ice-ball for 10 cents each. He would trudge and push his cart up the slope of Jalan Eunos and the kampung children would queue for him to buy the ice-balls. He was the most eagerly waited man on hot steamy days. Not many households had a fridge back then in the 60s, so Guan's ice balls were like gifts from heaven to quench our thirst.

Like a precision clockwork, Guan would appear in front of my grandma's house daily and ring his bell to announce his arrival. Blocks of ice were wrapped in gunny sacks and kept below his cart. The ice shaver machine was the centre piece of the cart. Next to it would be transparent glass bottles storing red, green and brown syrup. Two bowls containing boiled red beans and rice flour green chendol were placed on the cart too.

For 10 cents, your ice ball would be coated with red, green and brown gula melaka syrup which hid boiled red beans and chendol in the centre of the ball. Guan would take some of the shaved ice, create a depression and scoop some beans and green chendol into it. More ice was taken to shape the ball with his hands. He compressed and compacted the ball further so that it became solid and would not break easily. The final stage of making the ice ball was to coat it with the colourful sugary syrup. Voila and you are ready to roll your tongue all over the cold surface of the sweet ice ball.

I would suck and slurp the sweet sugary coat of the ice slowly because you did not want to end too early with just the tasteless white ice ball once the red, green and brown gula melaka coat was gone. Then you had to manoeuvre your tongue slowly and deeper into the ball in search of the beans and chendol in the mass of ice.

You have to make sure that the ice ball remained in its perfect round shape and it did not break while you did your act of slurping the ice for it could be messy once that happened. Not only that, you might lose some ice and filling when they fell to the ground. That would be a total loss of all your 10 cents worth of hard earned saving!

Every slurp and bean count and were precious to a young girl like me. Thanks Guan for that sweet memories.