The peddlers of these sub-zero sweet evils has been ringing out some of our primal desires since time immemorial and…they are still around today.

If you don't know which country Yusof Ishak was a President of, or what Dr Toh Chin Chye was famous for besides medicine, then this way of eating ice cream may jolly well turn into a trend for you.

But if you do, then this should be at one time, a big part of your life. Mine too. As a little boy growing up amidst the 60s and 70s, a quiet and hot afternoon would always be spent anticipating the "kriiing..kriiing" ice cream man. Then, spots like Haagen Daz and Baskin Robbins were beyond reality. Closest we had were the upmarket Magnolia Bar on Orchard Rd where Peranakan Place is today.

I remember it vividly. With a huge stainless steel ice cream box attached to his motorbike or tricycle, shaded by a colourful umbrella clamped to a pole, they chugged down your estate and rang aloud your hot afternoon desires. Then I would scamper out, itty bitty me in shorts, intercepted his path, demanded he stepped off his bike and interrogated him about his flavours of the day. Coolly, with a wry smile, he obliged and reached for the handle and lifted the lid off to reveal my ultimate weakness. Chocolate, vanilla and corn ice cream. Home made, super sub-zero cold, creamy, a big chunk and in my face. Then, as all my sense of reasoning went ballistics, the ice cream man reached out for that secret weapon to finish me off…the ICE CREAM SCOOP. "What do you want today?" he counter interrogated. And as I answered "CHOCOLATE, 20 cents", he counter offered with three wishes for what I was about to die for: "Bread, cone or biscuit?"

Finally, with the forbidden fruit in my hand, aka three full scoops of chocolate ice cream wrapped in the softest and gummiest sweet yellow bread, I stared death in the eyes. Death, because my mummy said I had a nagging cough (which meant grounded from ice cream) and more painfully, she had to pay for the ice cream. Anyway, as you will suspect, death was sweet but I survived. I've been to heaven and back.

Today, the peddlers of these sweet evils are unfortunately few and far between. One can be found outside the Amoy Street Food Centre and another right across UOB Plaza at Raffles Place in front of the Market Street Food Centre. There are also two along Orchard Road. These little morsels of ice cold pleasures cost about a dollar today but at least some things don't change and mummy doesn't have to pay for it.