Mobile Icecream Van - The Nostalgic Old School Icecream

In the 80's and 90's of Singapore, children of that time would feel excited whenever they heard the bell rang by the mobile icecream vendor who rode in a motorcycle with a container full of various type of icecream. The children who loved icecream would rush to the motorcycle icecream vendor usually in either around the HDB estate or at the school compound to get their favorite taste of the snack. For the past two decades, those icecream bikes were getting fewer and by now we could hardly see them except there could be one or two still operating in the town area and are usually operated by old uncles who are at least 60 years old.

Recently while I was having dinner at a hawker in a neighbourhood area, I heard a bell ring several times. Initially I thought it came from the seventh month 'Hungry Ghost' praying even though the way it was rung sounded so familiar. Out of curiosity, I traced the sound where the bell came from. It led me to the nearby carpark where I saw a man ringing the bell and a van decorated with many colorful lighting and LEDs. On the top right of the vehicle, soap bubbles were fluttering out from a pipe which I think was very cool.

I could see some people both adults and children crowding behind the rear door which was opened and it was brightly lit with colorful lighting. I went nearer and the sight of a lady scoping icecream from a container and placing it on a cup and then serving to the people around in queue amazed me. It brought me back the nostalgic memory of the mobile icecream motorcycle from the 80's when I was young.

What they had on their menu were almost the same as what the traditional mobile icecream vendor had during the old school time, except they did not have those branded icecream at that time like Walls' 'Funny Feet' and of course 'Cornetto' or Magnolia's push pop icecream. You can choose different flavors like chocolate, vanilla, sweet corn, raspberry ripple and etc.

According to the vendor, they will move around the neighbourhood to sell these old school icecream. They will usually come back to the same area once a week and they have been doing it since past 3 months ago. They have other partners who are serving in other areas of the island.

I have tried some of their icecream and I would say it is nothing fantastic, but definitely it is up to standard. For a price of $2.00, you can get 3 scopes of the icecream either in a paper cup or wrapped in a rainbow bread and $1.50 each for waffer biscuits cut icecream or cone icecream. After eating the icecream, it brought me not only sweet flavors of the past but also some nice childhood memory.