These simple biscuits (or cookies, depending on which side of the Atlantic you come from 
) are sold in large glass jars or big metal tins with a window in the front, and are sold by weight. Seeing these biscuits at a grocery store (or local kedai runcit) brought back a wave of memories of my childhood.
I’d cycle my bike down to the neighbourhood store, or go on a walk with my parents or late grandma and agonize over which biscuit I should pick. Should I go for the chocolate wafer, the gem biscuits with the pretty icing on top, the pineapple biscuits with the hard jam in the middle or the plain crackers sandwiched with cream? Argh! Decisions!
We don’t see many of these sold in the authentic giant glass jars or tins anymore. The neighbourhood grocery store / kedai runcit is going the way of the dodo and soon all we’ll have are pre-packaged generic tasting boring branded biscuits from supermarkets.
In the meantime, guess who’s having some biscuits for tea?
Did you grow up with these sort of biscuits too? I think this is something only found locally 
Paris B
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[ 43 comments… read them below or join the discussion ]
Twitter: stacey_1805
July 20, 2012 at 4:26 pm
I love those too! Those sold in the provision shops in my area are usually stored in metal tins. The pineapple jam biscuits & chocolate wafers are my favourites.
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Twitter: paris_b
July 22, 2012 at 11:05 am
*smacks head* Provisions shops! I was racking my head wondering what to call them coz I usually just call them by the local name here
These old school biscuits are wonderful aren’t they? 
Twitter: huixin
July 20, 2012 at 4:30 pm
eeep! i love the one with the pretty icing on top! and the folded biscuit with peanut butter in it
xin recently blogged…Addicted to the Fresh yet Cheeky: Dior Addict Eau Fraiche
I love the ones with the coloured icing too! Used to beg mum to get those but I had a bad habit …. I’d bite the sugar icing off and discard the biscuit part. Needless to say, mum wasn’t impressed!
Twitter: paris_b
July 22, 2012 at 11:07 am
Folded biscuit with peanut butter? I don’t think I’ve tried that one! :O
Twitter: theBumblebee92
July 20, 2012 at 4:31 pm
OMG!!! I still buy these. My fav is the pineapple biscuit. But when I was a kid, my fav is the gem biscuits with the pretty colourful icing on top. My mom rarely bought it for me because I only eat the icing and throw away the biscuits. That’s me being a naughty girl LOL. Oh memories~~~~ ^^
haha, the other way for me. I’m weird as a kid. I ate the biscuit, play with the colored icings, then throw them away. Too sweet for my liking.
Twitter: paris_b
July 22, 2012 at 11:08 am
LOL!! You naughty girl!
I would eat the icing but then eat the biscuit. Later I’d actually throw away the icing and when my dad found out, he’d buy me the plain ones which weren’t as much fun but at least I didn’t waste them I guess? hehe…
Twitter: iceyguin
July 20, 2012 at 4:42 pm
I love these biscuits
! I still eat them regularly <3
Twitter: paris_b
July 22, 2012 at 11:10 am
Whenever I come across a shop that sells them, I always stop and buy some. So sad that its not popular anymore eh?
haha i’ve got the memory of that small little tiny colourful topping biscuits!!
Twitter: paris_b
July 22, 2012 at 11:20 am
I think many of us grew up with these colourful biscuits
Every time we went for grocery shopping my mom would get me a dollar worth of gem biscuit with icing.
Even today,sometimes when I’m not working if I follow my mom to this old school grocery shopping she will get me out of habit.
Makes me feel like a kid all over again.
Twitter: paris_b
July 22, 2012 at 11:57 am
Aww being with our parents has a lovely way of making us feel like kids again, never mind our current ages!
This really brings back childhood memory!!!! *love*
I LOVE YOUR INSTA UPDATES PARIS!
i still love these kedai runcit biscuits most!!! u can still find one or two in the older streets and some pasar malam…
i never know the one with colourful icing is called gem biscuit haha…i love it so much as a kid…but parents usually dont buy it as my dad said?‘it’s full of artificial colouring’
growing up, i kinda lost interest in the colourful ones and just few years back i was on MAJOR craving of pineapple biscuits!
and when i first came to seremban, i love the sandwich cream crackers so much that i ate it everyday…and gained 2kg within a month… XD
Twitter: paris_b
July 22, 2012 at 11:59 am
Glad you enjoy the Insta-Updates Gin!
I enjoy posting them too especially when I’m feeling random 
These old school biscuits are so good. I’m glad that although most people buy the pre packaged type, there are still people making these for people like us! They are cheap and delicious and perfect for a nice snack… well unless you eat them everyday hehe…
Pineapple jam cookies!!!
Personally, I think the ones sold in the big metal tins tastes better than the pre-packed ones from the supermarket. Regardless of whether it’s the chocolate wafers or the colorful icing tiny-cookies.
Sze Ling recently blogged…Honey Cranberry Cornmeal Bread
Twitter: paris_b
July 22, 2012 at 12:00 pm
High 5 Sze Ling! I fully agree too! I don’t usually eat biscuits as a matter of course, but I can never resist one of these from the bulk buy tins. I don’t know why!
Twitter: ChloeAsh
July 20, 2012 at 10:06 pm
Oh, I still eat these! Don’t know if these will be my children’s childhood memories though…
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Twitter: paris_b
July 22, 2012 at 12:03 pm
It will be if they participate in the buying too
feels nostalgic looking at these jars, sadly it is getting lesser n lesser, sometimes i do feel like commercialization & modernization has kill off human’s emotion & feelings toward certain things…sounds too poetic huh?? :-p
Twitter: paris_b
July 22, 2012 at 12:04 pm
Haha indeed! Everything is now pre packaged and convenient that we have lost all touch with our rustic sides. I’m always very happy to visit a provision store and rummaging around it because you just never know what you might find
OOOh, good memories!!
I would have different favourites over time and would buy the current fave over and over again until I moved on to the next taste sensation, Haha.
I still buy some whenever I pass a shop with these biscuits. Indeed, as SzeLing says, they do seem to taste better than the pre-packaged ones – I think it’s because we’re tasting good memories as well!
Twitter: paris_b
July 22, 2012 at 12:05 pm
Ooh you have a point Rudi! When we eat these, we are reminded of what fun we had as kids
Pity that most modern city kids won’t experience this taste sensation eh?
now looking at the pic, my suliva is drooling…n thinking of making tea later in the afternoon, hahaha…my fave is the gem biscuit…indonesia also has this cookies loh
Twitter: paris_b
July 22, 2012 at 12:09 pm
Yay for a common biscuit Tuti!
I think it is a regional thing and at least we have one common bond – biscuits! 
Twitter: midnight_plue
July 21, 2012 at 10:34 am
no likey the colourful icing ones, but i adore the pineapple ones and also the small salty round crackers!
i used to go on a Sunday morning walk with my late grandma to buy these for my school recess time! those were the good days…
plue recently blogged…This Is How It All Began…
Twitter: paris_b
July 22, 2012 at 12:11 pm
Mmm yes, the salty round crackers! Beats Ritz crackers any day
Just had a similar conversation going with some people on FB about a particular sundry shop we used to get our biscuit stock from back in the days (ugh! I sound old!). We have since started a “kelab biskut pulau pinang” LMAO!
Twitter: paris_b
July 22, 2012 at 12:16 pm
Haha! I love your “Kelab biskut Pulau Pinang”!
So what do you all do? Haul biscuits for everyone when any one is back? 
A very nostalgic and lovely picture you have there Paris, right up my alley in memory lane. I grew up with the huge biscuit jars as my grandfather used to own a sundry shop located right next to his wooden bungalow
Outside the shop, there was also a traditional coconut grater. My cousins and I used to play outside the shop compound, sometimes we run and in out of the shop as well. Though it is literally my Ah Kong’s shop, but that’s about because we’re discplined never to take anything without paying.
During Chinese New Year, we will rip our angpows excitedly and go buy ice cream potong on the sweltering hot weather. I can identify most of the biscuits in your picture, my personal favourite is the one with colourful icing on top of the pebble sized biscuit. We call it “attap chee” in Penang because the icing resembles attap roof. Also love another one which is the bread stick.
These days even most sundry shop lack these huge biscuit jars perhaps due to space, variety of pre-packaged brands and convenience of single packaging. I still see these huge jars in pasar malam though. Some generic biscuits sold in these jars are nicer than the pre-packaged ones. When dipped in traditional black coffee, it’s just too yummy especially the bread stick
Twitter: paris_b
July 22, 2012 at 12:24 pm
Ohh what fun it must have been playing around a sundry shop! I must agree that these huge bulk buy biscuits in tins and glass jars are now the exception rather than the norm. I don’t eat biscuits normally but I always make time and space for these old school ones because I prefer how they taste vs the new fangled branded stuff from supermarkets. Its just different… in a good way
Hi Paris, I am one of your silent readers since this year. This post finally summoned my courage or lazy butt to post something. I grew up with these biscuits in Singapore too. We can hardly find them anymore, especially in big glass jar or tin can forms. We can find them at the older bakeries but they come in pre-packed form tied with rubber bands. There is this shop near Pierce Reservoir area that still sells them the old school way, with other childhood candies we used to it. My fave when young has to be the gem icing biscuits, with pink ones being top of choice. Now that I am older, I prefer the pineapple cookies.
Twitter: paris_b
July 22, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Hullo hullo KarenL!
So glad that a post about retro biscuits brought you out of your shell 
Its nice to know that you share the same memories and thanks for sharing where one can still get these old school method of selling biscuits from jars in Singapore! I can imagine it must be even harder to find these in Singapore than locally, since its so much more modern over there now 
I enjoy the pineapple jam ones too… especially when they stick to my teeth HAHA! Hope to see you around more often 
Of coz~! I love the Soda Biscuits with sugar and also the Raisin biscuits hahaha! Not forgetting Roti Kok with Kopi O~~ yum haha
Twitter: paris_b
July 23, 2012 at 6:35 pm
Ah you just brought back a slew of memories!
I love them all too!
Twitter: bunbunmakeup
July 23, 2012 at 3:42 am
We call them flower biscuits, if I interpreted your description correctly, coz they’re so pretty and colorful like a bed of flowers. I don’t see these glass jar ones anymore, but still see those metal tins. Not as often as those boring pre-packed ones at supermarkets though. They just taste different. No love. =(
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Twitter: paris_b
July 23, 2012 at 6:46 pm
Yes indeed! Prepackaged biscuits lose their personality
love the pineapple biscuits too, the provision shops loved me u see, I was one of their VIP customers having finding reasons to go there purchasing stuff such as paper dolls, plastic necklaces and other knick knacks XD
Twitter: paris_b
July 23, 2012 at 7:15 pm
HAHA Oh I remember those paper dolls! I used to buy my kites from there too to fly on a windy day… ah those were the days
Reese : Yes paper dolls~! haha That is what made me fell in love with fashion
yup… Those were the days too ParisB
The gem biscuits is still available here in the Phils. but comes in a pack..
My daughter only ate the icing on top and line up the biscuits beside her.. LOL
Twitter: paris_b
July 26, 2012 at 5:40 pm
Yummy! We get them in packs without icing too LOL! Your daughter sounds just like me as a kid