...Favoris Anciens... Old-Time-Favorites

Join me as we reminisce and celebrate our old favorites and now nonexistent treats that used to delight our palates. . .

Cheezels and Chickadees. The little thingies covered with bright orange cheese and the chicken-y smelling balls aren't exactly the best junk food you had ever tasted. But these two treats gave you something to look forward to after your classes in grade school - the little toys inside. Most memorable to me were the colorful slimy sticky pop-up toys. My brother and I drove mom crazy when we made a game of throwing them up the bedroom ceiling to make them stick (and they did!).

Arnott's Tim Tam. Tim Tams are a gift from heaven. If you've never tried one, you owe your taste buds a major explanation. These are wonderful chocolate-filled, chocolate-covered rectangular biscuits. Too freaking sweet, you may be thinking. Wrong. They're creamy, they're perfect - just the right amount of chocolate. And they're no longer available.

Horlicks. Horlicks is a popular chocolate drink in Hong Kong. They used to sell the candy version here, which was very, very similar to Ovalteenies. These red and white packets were found near the counters of your favorite supermarkets, where your Chupa Chups and Strepsils now are.

Carol Anne's Cheese Potato Chips. Not much can be said about the packaging since these chips used to come in the transparent plastic bags now seen protecting your common chicharon and dilis. But the potato chips inside were fantastic. Perfectly crisp and flavorful, these chips tasted real, not like tha factory-produced starch we are now being swamped with.

Selecta's Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Sandwich. Good vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two Mickey Mouse-shaped chewy chocolate cookies. This was so good.. I used to eat five a day.

Magnolia's Ice Cream Sandwich. Magnolia's ice cream sandwich used wafers instead of your usual cookie, which made for a light and creamy treat.

Cigarette Gum. Paper-covered rolls of gum in pretend cigarette cartons. This was perfect for freaking our yayas out. "I-susumbong kita sa mami mo!" my yaya once said in halting Tagalog.

Jack and Jill Barbecue Curls. For lactose-intolerant, cheese-hating people, Jack and Jill used to produce an alternative to their popular curls. Not anymore.

Puffy Cones. The one sure thing to stop my bawling while heading for my pediatrician to get shots was a puffy cone. This treat was a cone filled with chocolate-covered strawberry marshmallow. The perfect tranquilizer for little cowards.

Chocovim. Chocovim used to be a staple in every child's life. The Chocolait-like treat used to be sold in bottles before it was phased out. It was again produced years later but this time, the chocolate milk came in pyramid-shaped cartons. That one didn't last either.

Tira-tira. The tira-tira of our generation can be remembered as a chalk-shaped, hard candy. But my mom tells me there was another kind of tira-tira in her time. Stretchy, chewy and taffy like. She still gets a glazed look in her eyes when she remembers it.

Pom-poms. Pom-poms were little caramel-filled chocolate balls that came in yellow boxes. They were chewy, they were sweet and now they are gone.

McDonald's Twister Fries. Here's another treat that was just too good to last. Twister Fries have been playing a now-you-see-me-now-you-don't game with us. Please, just do us all a favor and put it on the permanent menu.

Scramble. I never had the chance to try this frozen treat when I was a kid. Mom had a thing against street food. Although I was able to sneak in afternoons of bagoong-topped singkamas on sticks and lots and lots of fishballs, for some reason I never got around to trying the scramble.

Binatog. Corn and shredded coconut with your choice of sugar or salt. I liked my binatog very salty. I couldn't imagine eating it with sugar. To this day, binatog vendors occasionally can be seen in the streets riding their bikes that carry tubs of this old Filipino favorite.

Cotton Candy. Binatog vendors aren't the only ones who have disappeared or dwindled in number. Old men who push around metal cotton candy-makers are almost extinct.

Lipps Candy. Bright pink strawberry/cherry-flavored candies that little girls used to play with by pretending the candy was lipstick. It was disgusting, it made our lips as sticky as hell, but hey, it worked. Not to fulfill our desires though, instead of looking like pretty ladies, we looked like clowns with bright pink mouths.

Shawarma. Shawarma stands used to be so hot. But one by one, it seems like they've all closed down. There are still a few that remained open, thankfully, for those people who like this Mediterranean treat.

Rolling Stones. Rolling Stones, which were chocolate-covered honeycomb balls, came in orange packs. If I remember correctly, they were just P3.50 when I was in grade school.

Hershey's Bar None. The old Bar None came in a packaging of different shades of brown that immediately told you, "I'm gooey and chocolatey! Pick me, chocoholic!" Yes, it was gooey, it was chocolatey. Perfect for a quick sugar fix.

Goya Chocolate. The older ones were creamy and melted easily in your mouth.

Brown Cow. If there was one thing I absolutely had to have in the refrigerator when I was a kid, it was Brown Cow. And I didn't like mixing it with milk - I liked it on ice cream or better yet, I like eating the syrup straight from the bottle.

Clover Bits. Leslie's used to sell Clover Bits in tiny packets for a quick snack fix. Although the extra-cheesy Clover of today is still as good, one cannot help but miss those little packs that can easily be slid in one's pocket.

Chocolait in a Glass Bottle. Chocolait now comes in plastic bottles or the cartons that come in two different sizes. Years ago, though, I'm sure you remember that Chocolait came in thick glass bottles. These bottles were even used by a lot of people for keeping tap water cold in the refrigerators.

Cola Candy. Cola Candy in the purple wrapper was usually sold in sari-sari stores or sidewalks. This has been replaced with Dynamite, Maxx and a host of other different generic hard candies.

Original Chippy. I swear that the Chippy of today isn't the same as the Chippy of before. Let's wait and see that Jack and Jill will revert to the original recipe.

Dip Pops. This was a Goya product. These lollipops came with powder dips for a more interesting sucking experience.

Combos. Combos used to come in bigger carton containers and an assortment of flavors. I liked their pizza line. Now, Combos come in packs and usually have just one flavor - cheese.

Benson's. The individually wrapped Benson's candies tasted very different from the rolls that you can boy now. The old kind was chocolatey and the caramel was more chewy. The packaging now may look more hip than the old drab one, but then again, it's what's inside that really counts.

Melody Pops. A lollipop and whistle in one. No wonder kids loved this. I was really beginning to miss it. But when I remembered the racket my little brother used to make with these lollipops, add to that the amount of saliva spillage, I can say that we are better off without some things.