
15 Junk Food Snacks from Childhood that We Still Binge on Until Today
September 11, 2019- Gela VelascoWords
- Daniel TingcungcoIllustration
Snacking is one habit very few grow out of. We go from sharing bags of chips during recess to bringing bags filled with snacks on long weekend trips. Convenience stores near offices enjoy the most customer traffic from employees buying snacks during their breaks. When it comes to choosing a quick snack, old habits are hard to break. Recess is no longer part of our schedule, but it’s a moment we can all come back to in a supermarket or convenience store snack aisle. Plus this time, we can buy it with our own money and not worry about it being too expensive. In this list we round up some of our favorite childhood snacks that are still around today.
1. Tomi Sweet Corn Chips

Our love for Tomi Sweet Corn Chips is no secret, as you’ve read in our Filipino style chili recipe and our What We’re Loving Now feature on Potato Corner’s Sweet Corn fries. Tomi Sweet Corn Chips delivers a sweetness a homegrown Pinoy will never get sick of.
2. Haw Haw Milk Powder Candy

Haw Haw Milk Powder Candy is one snack worth chewing till your teeth hurt. That sweet creaminess in each tiny pack just demands that you reach out for more.
3. Peter’s Butter Ball

Whenever the house had enough stock of Peter’s Butter Ball, half a bag would be gone as soon as I was left alone. How can any kid or adult complain about a ball made of sugar-laden butter flavor?
4. Regal Sweet Corn

I have never and may never grow to like eating corn: it’s just too much work for the teeth, tasteless without butter or salt, but then becomes way too salty and messy when you flavor the plant. It may not count, but I will only ever eat it in it’s Sweet Corn form, with its salty-sweet seasoning, and garlicky twist.
5. Nestlé Twin Pops

Before supermarket freezers were bursting with Magnum, Selecta, Ben & Jerry’s, Korean fish ice cream, and various local and foreign brands, there were only orange and chocolate flavored Twin Popsies. The limitation of choices only made each flavor find better. And let’s not forget the fact you can share one pack with a friend, or eat both pops when you’re feeling selfish!
6. Nissin Butter Coconut Biscuits

Filipinos usually prefer a biscuit or cracker with spread, but butter coconut biscuits are the exemption to this rule. One bite from the biscuit that combines two Filipino favorites, and we all find ourselves halfway through the box minutes later.
7. Potchi

Looks don’t deceive when it comes to Potchi. The Strawberry Cream variant promises pillows of sugar that are tender in your mouth. The mini burger version layers sugar upon sugar: every kid’s dream fulfilled and an adult’s diabetic indulgence.
8. Snacku

Even as kids, we knew this snack wasn’t even made of vegetables. At the same time, it didn’t matter either as we enjoyed the MSG-laden sticks. One stick held enough of its dangerously deliciously components, but eating two at once made snacking even better.
9. Ri-chee

Milk was something we all loved as children, but didn’t we all wish we could have it with more sugar? Ri-chee fulfills this dream for all of us and still brings us back to the simpler, sweeter days.
10. Chiz Curls

Eating Chiz Curls is enjoyable from start to finish: from reaching in for the first bite, coming back for more, to licking those cheese bits off your fingers. Those tiny bags always left us wanting more, which is why the larger ones always felt like a treat.
11. Knick Knacks

The best thing about Knick Knacks is how each flavor never gets old. It’s easy to switch between milk, chocolate, and strawberry, or have that go-to choice for days. As a kid, these snacks were perfect with milk, but now we can all enjoy them with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate.
12. Yan Yan

This is one snack that was rarely shared during recess. Once a Yan Yan was passed around, not even one smudge of the chocolate or strawberry cream would be left. The sticks were fine on their own, but lost their purpose once the cream was finished before getting to the last stick. Now we can all enjoy an entire serving in the privacy of our cubicles.
13. Curly Tops

This chocolate treat not only wins for its consistent flavor, but also for its well-sealed and classically designed packaging. They may be a little waxy in the mouth, but that doesn’t mean these fake processed chocolates weren’t any good—they were an addictive favorite.
14. Choki Choki

These chocolate sticks were a bit harder to eat in the humid tropical heat, but that didn’t really matter to us as children. Having those chocolate stains on our hands, school uniforms, and all over our faces was worth all the trouble and sermons.
15. Pee Wee

Pee Wee’s barbecue flavor was probably every child’s introduction to chips, even before Chippy and Tortillas replaced this as a staple. This classic snack also has a Pizza Supreme version.
What is your favorite snack from childhood? Which if these junk food did you enjoy as a kid? Sound off in the comments section below!

35 responses to “15 Junk Food Snacks from Childhood that We Still Binge on Until Today”
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Does anyone else remember those pusit and vinegar snacks that were actually shaped like pusit? I think you could buy those in the ridiculously tiny sari-sari store packs and I had to buy 1723618294798132 of it to be satisfied.
Vinegar Pusit!!!! 😀
Oh man, why didn’t I put that together hahahaha, now can anyone tell us where to get them?
Kirei and Green peas
“Fake processed chocolate” to describe Curly Tops sounds a bit cruel. So it’s not Amadeo or Valrhona quality chocolate, but I’m pretty sure Ricoa uses real chocolate in their products. The Ricoa factory on EDSA always smells like chocolate if you roll down your car window! Also, any chocolate is processed to be edible, but that’s just me being literal when you were likely being figurative. 🙂
Thanks for clarifying that 🙂 Noted on this!
Jelly Tongue! We’d come back after recess with red tongues hahaha
I did not read the descriptions because the illustrations were so DAMN AMAZING.
Thanks, Pepe! It was fun doing these. 😀
dapat kasama to 🙂
or yung cheese barrel hehehe
lol nawala yung picture
wala ulit haha #talkingtomyself
meron na 🙂
sorry but the real twin popsies know and recognize were from magnolia… purist ko eh.
no love for chocnut? tarzan? judge? boomboom? pompoms? mang kepweng? chizums? chickadees?
baka kasi im from a older generation hay…
Yes, I remember they were originally from Magnolia until they had a merger with Nestle. When their partnership ended, Nestle owns it now. It used to be called Twin Popsies, too, now it’s just Twin Pops.
One of the biggest omissions in this list (edit: Well durr I forgot the “until today” part sorry :D)
These things are like crack!! 😀
the red candy that we used as lipstick 😉
HAHA YES!
Love the illustrations! Ang galing huhu
Thank you! It really brought back childhood memories. 😀
They don’t make Serge Chocolate bars anymore, don’t they? I miss that and the egg shaped chocolates that they make. 🙁
Shouldn’t that be Regent Sweet Corn?
Pritos Ring needs a comeback! We need it in our lives.
Marami pang mga favorites ang wala, dapat pala pang Top 50 yung list hehe! Flat Tops, Wonder Boy, Zeb Zeb, Kirei / Oishi, Cherry Ball, Choc-Nut, White Rabbit, Rin-Bee, Humpy Dumpy, Marie, Moby, Haw-Haw Flakes… yan muna hehe!
Cheez Curls, Rin-Bee, Kirei, Oishi 🙂
Pirate is my favorite 🙂
I stopped eating Peter’s Butter Ball when I was in grade 3 bec I accidentally ate one where it was infested with red ants up to the core. I brushed my teeth so hard that time to rid myself of disgust.
were the illustrations done on the computer or on paper?
i cannot stomach ri-chee back in the days. even until now. haha. they should have included kornets, cheezee (not sure about the spelling), and moby.
Iced gem biscuits! My favorite!
Does anyone know what those ramen noodles snack that you have to shake??
Nooda crunch!!! 😀
All time favorite – Bar-B-Q Curls by Jack and Jill, Pik-Nik, Roll O Nuts, Serg’s Chocolate bar, Purefoods Hotdogs with Orange Julius, cow label….
Pirate was my favorite too! I could still remember the taste. Haha