Fairy's Strange Junkfood Tribute: Chocolate Fingers!

Chocolate Fingers!

by Farah 'Fairy' Mahdzan

(5-Jul-2003) | Readers Say

Around 1982 when dinosaurs still roamed Earth and Sesame Street reached its first teen year of 13, I had my 3rd birthday. To celebrate, we had a simple home party with my immediate family members complete with food and cake. What more could a kid ask for, right? Well, there was one thing wrong though. For reasons unknown, the birthday girl looked anything but excited.

There I was, surrounded by my sisters, the maid and dear Mami, and looking as sour as curdled milk. I have no idea why I was sulking. I certainly didn't think twice about not hiding my hideous and inappropriate expression; instead I wore it pompously in true toddler rebellion spirit, cake-cutting or no cake-cutting.

Ahah! The pace of the party was finally picking up. I was finally allowed to start ripping through the wrappings of my birthday gifts. My frown was slowly fading away as I had channeled all of my sulking energy onto the task of opening my presents, and obviously I couldn't wait to see what this one contained.

Finally! The buddings of a potential smile, the first one to immerge ever since the party started. Whatever is inside that wrapping, it sure is making me one happy 3-year-old. What could it be?

Now would you look at that smile, wider than a shark whale's waistline! No one's pockets got singed for sure when buying this thing that was making me break into this angelic smile: a packet of those chocolate wafers wrapped in gold foil with zebra prints!

Wow, I was such an easy kid to please!

I'm sure you've all had them before while growing up, these finger-like wafers coated in chocolate; man, they were practically available at almost every child's birthday party as part of the goodie bags for guests. I was curious to see if these chocolates were still around today, and by golly, here they are in 2003:

Today, the chocolates come wrapped in gold or red foil with printings of a giraffe cartoon character. A packet of these things costs between RM2.60 and RM3.20 (ironically, it is more expensive at the sundry shops than they are at supermarkets).

In a very creative twist, these long chocolate wafers are quite the popular item for decorating Malay wedding hantaran (wedding gifts from the bride or groom side), such as one particular specialty of my Opah's (grandmother). She lovingly made this chocolate landak for both my sisters' weddings.

We affectionately call this masterpiece a landak because that is what it's suppose to be: a porcupine. I suppose you could argue and say it resembles a turkey or even a peacock bird even, because of the flare-ish "backend," but I don't think Opah was willing to give up on landak and call it burung Belanda instead:

Opah: Nak tolong Opah buat "burung belanda" tak besok?
Me: Hah?

To make this stunning piece of chocolate art work, Opah would use a small fat papaya for the "body." Toothpicks were meticulously pierced through the ends of the chocolate wafers which were then pierced into the papaya. Chocolate coins are then used to cover the other papaya portion that isn't the landak's butt.

I think I'll call the chocolate landak an X-Landak from now on; it looks mutated enough. And where's the head? Beats me. Ask my Opah.

Needless to say, this particular hantaran had to have extra tight security because my sister was beginning to look very uncomfortable: kids were eyeing the thing like they haven't been fed for days.

Another Finger-like Favorite!

Later on in between 1986 and 1987, when I was old enough to attend primary school, there was another delightful "finger" junk food to hit the Malaysian kiddy market, but this time it didn't come ready in chocolate coating. Instead, you had to dip your wafers into the chocolate sauce provided. Yes, it was none other than:

NINI!

Nini comes in two flavors, chocolate and peanut butter, whatever turns you on. Today's Nini has the chocolate sauce in a red cup while the yellow one contains the peanut butter, though I think in my school days it was the total opposite: the yellow cup was the one that contained chocolate sauce.

There wasn't a kid who didn't love Nini (except maybe the pitiful ones whose mothers forbade them to come near junk food, even with a ten feet galah). Watching the Nini TV commercials was indeed mesmerizing; the kids in the ad made it look so cool, with the dipping action and all! Although Nini was pricey for the average child at RM1 (it's still RM1 today), I would patiently save up my money to purchase a cup of good ol' Nini. I didn't have these things very often but when I did, it was reason enough to run screaming around the house announcing to annoyed family members about my rare and joyful purchase.

Part of the attraction of Nini was the dipping of the biscuits into the sauce part, so in essence you had total control as to how much chocolate was on your wafer. Yes indeedy, Nini was no sissy chocolate, eating a box of Nini was all about being proactive: if the chocolate sauce can't come to your biscuit, then to the chocolate sauce your biscuit must go!

Hmmm...

But it was weird with this cup of Nini I purchased last week. Somehow the biscuits tasted rather, garlicky. Eek.

There are times when you had leftover chocolate sauce because you ran out of biscuits first (aiseh, salah budget). This was hardly a hindrance to the kids who found ways to finish off their Nini, sauce and all, and my cutey-patootey nephew here best illustrates one very popular method:

Toldja Nini was "finger" food!

WHAT READERS SAY ABOUT Chocolate Fingers!:

#26. Matt memang psycho, but I love his website. X-E rawks.

Raf, I emailed you my phone no. So jadi lah kot?
Posted by Fairy on 11-Jul-2003, 16:42 MYT

#25. trauma! trauma! saiko pun ade. ade burial lagi tuh! man THAT one mad me laugh.
Posted by lyna - Website on 11-Jul-2003, 16:24 MYT

#24. lol! saiko siak hahahaahahahaha. but had a good laugh reading it haahaah.

ahhhh cik fairy, apa macam on sunday oi?
Posted by Rafthah on 10-Jul-2003, 19:09 MYT

#23. RAF! I found some Yan Yan pictures, eaten by a guy who doesn't seem to like them very much (siap ada burial for Yan the Yan he bought haha): Link
Posted by Fairy on 10-Jul-2003, 18:33 MYT

#22. Arip, I'm game. Tea on Saturday it is. You know how to reach me babeh.

And Arip, be a darling and bring my school year books, SA and KJ please? Boleh kan kan kan.
Posted by Fairy on 10-Jul-2003, 17:47 MYT

#21. AKu memang cute. Muahahhaha. Pity it didn't remain that way for long. Then again, mana pernah orang jumpa firearms dealer yang muka kiut... all of us have to be gangster-looking buggers. Weekend buat apa? Jom lepak for tea. Lama tak jumpa kau.
Posted by Arip on 10-Jul-2003, 13:53 MYT

#20. Arip, cutenya kau!!
Posted by Fairy on 10-Jul-2003, 13:13 MYT

#19. Link - satu gambar aje ye. immediately after that was taken, aku dapat stage fright and went under the table. and my cousin had to blow out the candles for me. kesian aku...
Posted by Arip on 10-Jul-2003, 10:57 MYT

#18. eih eih lupe plak.. the one that i told u before that choc dip is still kinda new.. not our generation.. early 90's kot
Posted by tasia on 9-Jul-2003, 23:30 MYT

#17.
Posted by Fairy on 9-Jul-2003, 23:29 MYT

#16. Hahahahahaha!!!
Posted by Sigit on 9-Jul-2003, 21:47 MYT

#15. hmmm.. pistol business is okay. sold a shotgun today. lega aku. anyway, thank you for taking me up on the suggestion. nanti kita kejar mamak tu sama-sama. gimme a call, nanti aku datang.

just for good measure, aku pun upload gambar masa 3 tahun nyer besday. hang pi tengok. GAMBAR
Posted by Arip on 9-Jul-2003, 17:07 MYT

#14. Hello Arip dearie, how's the pistol business coming along.

Arip, kau ni macam imply aku ni too "American" lah. Whatever gave you that idea?

I am not sure if those chips/crisps/shitty pieces of potatoes we had in school are still around for me to review, but apa yang I can buy from the stores that are nostalgic, I'll definitely put the review up lah ok. I think the best place to buy them is from that roti mamak man on the motorcycle. Satu hal pulak nak mengejar dia!
Posted by Fairy on 9-Jul-2003, 16:10 MYT

#13. kau ni kan... dah takde kerja lain la. nice to know our astro fees going to good use. next up, aku suggest kau chroniclekan those crisps (u americans call it chips) yang kita selalu makan masa sekolah dulu. i've forgotten pretty much all of them, so u go and refresh my mind ye? sayang farah...
Posted by Arip on 9-Jul-2003, 15:56 MYT

#12. tasia, I guess you from different junkfood generation kot, that junkfood you described I'm not entirely familiar with, UNLESS you're talking about something like Nyam Nyam from Indonesia (ada link to it in one of my posts down here).
Posted by Fairy on 9-Jul-2003, 15:05 MYT

#11. eih tak perasan u have this comment page.. cool cool fairy.. eh i love that hmm u dip the spoon in the chocolate and letak kat colorful bisquit ? rasanya it has a tiger on the packaging.. yang tu lagi sedap.. fairy.. your face.. nampak sangat gumbira haha..
Posted by tasia on 9-Jul-2003, 03:16 MYT

#10. aiyo daling, my bday is hujung bulan ni lah 30th. ur not late yet but ur actually VERY early in wishing! teehee...
thank god my cuppa nini's biskut die sumer rase splendid i'd rather give u those biskut since i tak makan pun biskut nye. like i said, i ratah the sauce onlyyy.....sedap n finger lickin' good! (there goes KFC's tagline)
Posted by lyna - Website on 8-Jul-2003, 19:03 MYT

#9. Heh, tu dia Lyna. If you have the cravings go for it girl! Just hope you get yourself a better tasting cup of Nini biscuits, mine betul2 tasted like they put in garlic butter or something into the mix. Gile.
Posted by Fairy on 8-Jul-2003, 17:55 MYT

#8. gurl, u make me wanna run off to the kedai mamak or supermarket juz to get those nini's! sampai sekarang makan nini tu! and its not for kids only maaahhh...
anywho...i'd buy the nini, makan biskut die 2, 3 batang jek lepas tu baru eat the choco sauce. ratah as to say. yes, im THAT bad.
Posted by lyna - Website on 8-Jul-2003, 16:39 MYT

#7. Okay, saw the animated gif. Didn't remember about it the first time.
Posted by MK84 on 8-Jul-2003, 11:44 MYT

#6. Wah tak disangka yaa, ternyata elo kecilnya imut2 banget hehehe, sayang gedenya amit2 Anyway, mana emailnya? udah gue tunggu2 nih gak dateng2
Posted by Bayu on 8-Jul-2003, 03:21 MYT

#5. Raf, ah ok. Kasi lah gambar Yan Yan tu. I am so sorry but the Indonesian Nini was I refering to is call Nyam Nyam, not Yan Yan, my bad.

Hey Jeroen, wah Dutch chocolate biscuits with cheese. Sounds lovely! Bring me some over will ya! Hehe.
Posted by Fairy on 6-Jul-2003, 17:41 MYT

#4. a similar product call yan yan, sebijik cam nini jugak, mana de tiger plak? I'll get a pic of that and pass 2 ya.
Posted by Rafthah on 6-Jul-2003, 17:15 MYT

#3. Hehe, your are funny with the coklat.. in fact it's nice to tell you that we have about the same here, with coklat but also with some kind of cheeze. You should defenately try it too!
Posted by Yerun (Jeroen) - Website on 6-Jul-2003, 17:11 MYT

#2. Ah, eating Nini sauce with our fingers, I'm sure most of us are guilty of that.

Raf, are you saying that Nini is called Yan2 in Singapore or are you saying you have a similar product there called Yan Yan? As far as I know, Yan Yan is an Indonesian brand chocolate made by Arnott's (who is also makers of Tim Tam, mmm my favorite chocolate biscuits) which is like Nini, but different lah. Ada gambar tiger kan on it. Then it's not Nini

I suppose we've developed our taste buds over the years, knowing to differentiate bad tasting food from good. And you're right, the chocolate fingers look prettier than they taste.
Posted by Fairy on 6-Jul-2003, 16:14 MYT

#1. hahahaha adoiii you make me crave for all these stuffs tau, nini is the same as what we call yan2 here, sometimes dah boring2 kat kerja, id just buy one of em and dok melantak sengsorang, usually love to finish up the biscuits first then dip my fingers in the choc sauce (yes yes still a kid like ur nephew there hehe) and that fingers choc was my fav siak! but they dont taste as good as it was before ay???
Posted by Rafthah on 6-Jul-2003, 14:35 MYT

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