History of Ice, Ice Ball and Ice Kacang in Singapore ● Tropical Ice Paradise

History_Ice_Ice_Ball_Ice_Kacang_Singapore

People enjoy iced drinks and cold desserts during hot weather since ancient times.

General History of Ice

Before the invention of electric refrigeration it was only possible to harvest natural ice from mountains tops or frozen lakes.

Ice harvested during winter was kept in ice houses so that ice was available in the summer or in the tropics. These were French ladies enjoying ice cream in 1801.

Naturally, this method of procuring ice was very expensive, hence during ancient times only royalty and the very rich could afford the luxury of cold drinks and ice desserts.

Harvested ice were kept in ice houses since ancient times. Since 400 BC, the ancient Persians were storing harvested ice in ice houses known as yakhchal. These huge dome shaped store houses have coned roofs, thick mud walls, underground storage rooms, and below them, underground aqueducts to keep the ice from melting.

Yes, ancient fridges were literally the size of houses.

Frederic Tudor (known as Boston's "Ice King") founded the Tudor Ice Company in 1806. At that time, Tudor realised that ships bringing goods to Boston were leaving the port empty. He saw the opportunity to fill the empty ships and export ice to warmer climes. He turned the abundant and free ice from the frozen lakes of New England, USA into a fortune.

Tudor carved ice blocks from New England lakes and shipped them to the southern US states, throughout the Caribbean and around the world, including to India, China, Batavia (Jakarta) and Singapore (yes, Singapore was in Tudor's network). Really, we once imported natural ice all the way from the lakes of New England on the other side of the world (though not reflected in this map of Tudor's global network in 1856) 😀

Tudor's ice were stored in icehouses (warehouses) and icemen delivered them to homes in ice wagons. Tudor had a network of ice houses and ice delivery services across the USA. Blocks of natural ice would be used to cool ice boxes (called a refrigerator), the precursor of today's electric refrigerators.

Refrigerator box cars cooled by blocks of natural ice were in use in the USA till the 1940s before they were finally phased out, replaced by rail cars fitted with artificial refrigeration. Source

Electric powered home refrigerators were available in the USA since the 1920s but only the well heeled could afford them. This General Electric model retailed for a princely USD$525.

The old ice block ice box survived in the USA till the 1950s. It's a testimony of the resilience of Tudor's pervasive natural ice network and the time needed to develop an affordable electric home refrigerator that could match the ice box. Source

Icehouses, home ice delivery, and natural ice ice boxes did not disappear till the 1960s in the USA (before they were replaced by electric home refrigerators).

There is an ice box in the Peranakan Museum in Malacca, a sign that there is a reliable supply of ice blocks in Malacca. Atlas Ice was founded in 1907 and is still in business today in Malacca with operations throughout Malaysia.

Prototypes of artificial refrigeration machines first appeared in the late 18th century and various pioneering contraptions were developed in North America and Europe in the 19th century.

This was Frenchman Ferdinand Carré's device for making ice. In 1876, Carré's refrigeration system was fitted in the ship Paraguay allowing it to carry frozen meat on intercontinental voyages.

In 1881, the 1320 ton 73 metre Dunedin was refitted with a Bell Coleman refrigeration machine with which she took the first frozen load of meat from New Zealand to Great Britain. The Dunedin continued in the frozen meat trade until she was lost without trace (presumed sunk) in 1890, en route from New Zealand to Britain.

There are popular urban legends that ice ball, ice kacang, cendol with ice and other ice desserts were created with "leftover ice" from such reefers (freezer ships). However, there are no evidence (document or oral) to support such assertions.

At that time, Tudor's natural ice network was already bringing ice to Singapore. Moreover, these shipborne refrigeration systems were for freezing meats and "leftover ice" may not be safe for human consumption. Finally, land based ice manufacturing works were already established in Singapore alongside natural ice houses in the 1860s.

History of Ice in Singapore

In Singapore, Hoo Ah Kay, who is better known as Whampoa, built an ice house at Clark Quay (near Coleman Bridge) in 1854. Whampoa imported natural ice from the United States and might have wanted to mimic Tudor's USA network in Singapore.

Whampoa hoped to sell over a thousand pounds of ice a day but managed less than half that amount. Whampoa's ice house business failed and closed after two years in 1856. That year 1856, Tudor exported 146,000 tons of ice to its global network (from Boston).

(Whampoa's ice house was demolished in 1981 for the widening of River Valley Road. A replica was later built at the site which we can visit today at Clark Quay.)

Singapore's first ice manufacturer, Singapore Ice Works at River Valley Road entered the scene in the 1860s in direct competition with Tudor Ice Company in Singapore to the benefit of consumers. Natural and manufactured ice were readily available in 1800s Singapore, a tropical ice paradise.

(In a parallel universal, ice manufacturer Bengal Ice Company opened in Calcutta, India in 1878.)

Ice cream and ice puddings were available for sale in Singapore in the late 19th century (1800s) for well heeled residents such as colonial officers and wealthy traders. These could be made with imported natural ice or manufactured ice. Source

Ice cream was made by whipping milk and sugar (with flavouring of choice like vanilla) by hand cranking the container chilled in a bucket of crushed ice.

There is a hand cranked ice cream maker at the Peranakan Museum in Malacca.

In 1918, both ice balls and ice kacang were already popular with school children in Singapore. Ice kacang is known as ayer batu campur in Malay or ABC for short.

A Tamil ice street hawker in the 1900s in Singapore.

Ice water seller in Singapore in the 1930s.

An ice cream man in Singapore between 1910 and 1940 (exact date is unknown).

The New Singapore Ice Works opened in the 1930s by a Dutch company which ran it till 1958 when it was sold to Cold Storage. The ice factory shut on 22 September 1985.

New Singapore Ice Works was located at the intersection of Sungei Road and Pitt Street / Weld Road. The huge building was bounded by Larut Road, Pitt Street, Sungei Road and Weld Road. The area around the ice works was known as Gek Sng Kio 结霜桥 which in Hokkien literally means "the bridge where ice formed" or "frosted bridge" by which it is commonly known.

The "bridge" refers to Weld Bridge at the ice works, which straddles the Rochor Canal. There was a famous laksa stall known as Sungai Road Laksa or to the older generation as Gek Sng Kio Laksa. The laksa stall is still in operation nearby at 27, Jalan Berseh.

Besides New Singapore Ice Works, there are other ice manufacturers such as Nanyang Chinese Ice Factory founded in 1947, Tuck Lee Ice founded in 1957, etc.

Delivering ice blocks in 1970s Singapore at Merchant Street.

The ice works made ice available to the public at home, restaurants and hawker stalls. Many homes could not afford electric home refrigerators till the 1970s and parts of Singapore were still not on the electricity grid.

Nevertheless, the wide availability of manufactured ice in Singapore made cold treats accessible to more people. The man is hand making ice cream in Singapore in an ice cream factory in 1962.

Ice cream men would collect ice cream from the factory and sold ice cream in carts bringing joy to children all over our sunny island.

At ice kacang, air ball and cendol stalls, the blocks of ice were shaved with a hand cranked machine. It was rather common in Singapore up to the 1980s and can still be found in operation in Malaysia today.

The ice ball appeared around the 1910s - sold at 5 or 10 cents in the 1950s and 1960s, it was every child's dream treat. It was ice blocks shaved by hand, shaped by hand into an icy ball. The ice ball is then drizzled with evaporated milk and all kinds of coloured sugary syrups. Some sellers added colourful jellies, red bean, attap seed or sweet corn in the centre of the ball.

雪花飛昌記冷熱甜品 ice desserts in Chinatown.

Ice kachang was a contemporary of the ice ball appearing at around the same time i.e. 1910s. Shaved ice was collected directly into a bowl and dribbled with the usual evaporated milk and coloured syrups. Instead of eating with hands like ice balls, ice kacang was scooped up with spoons.

When machine made edible ice become easily accessible, the ancient cendol which was originally a drink in a cup of short stubby noodles, coconut milk and palm sugar also took on the form of ice kacang or "ice ball in a bowl".

I loved sucking an ice ball when I was a child and didn't worry that I was eating it with soiled hands. But, deadly typhoid and cholera outbreaks were common from the 1930s through to the 70s, so gradually making food with bare hands was frowned upon.

In the 1960s, I thought I was going to die of cholera during one of the epidemics. After eating rojak, I had terrible stomach ache and diarrhoea for days. I dared not tell my parents or anyone and asked myself "why is my life so short"? 🥹

Anyway, I survived and that episode probably gave me some immunity for some offbeat food adventures ever since.

Back to the ice ball story - the hand shaped, hand held ball of joy gave way to the more hygienic "zero touch" ice kacang. The last ice ball was sold around the 1970s.

Written by Tony Boey on 11 Feb 2023

References:

Image of yakhchal courtesy of Wikipedia, image of Coney Island icehouse courtesy of Wikipedia, image of refrigerator courtesy of Flickr, image of ice cream in 1801 courtesy of Wikipedia, image of hand cranked ice cream maker courtesy of Wikipedia, image of artificial refrigeration courtesy of Wikipedia, image of ice seller courtesy of National Archives of Singapore, image of refrigerator box car courtesy of Wikipedia, image of ice water seller in Singapore courtesy of National Archives of Singapore, image of ice ball courtesy of NAS, image of delivering ice blocks in Singapore courtesy of NAS, image of Dunedin courtesy of Wikipedia, map of Tudor ice network courtesy of Wikipedia, image of ice kacang courtesy of Flickr, image of making ice cream courtesy of NAS, image of ice cream carts courtesy of NAS, image of Nanyang Chinese Ice courtesy of NAS, image of ice works at Rochor Road courtesy of NAS, map of Singapore courtesy of National Archives of Singapore, Culinary Biographies: Charting Singapore's History Through Cooking & Consumption, image of ice cream man courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.