Sweet Tang

My love of food and food stories have been shaped by a life of food, food hunting, good home cooking, and soujourns to places simply to eat. My dad used to fly the whole family to Hatyai, Thailand, for the sole purpose of enjoying a roasted suckling pig for under RM100.

Kit, on the other hand, was brought up a lot more strictly - brown rice, no soda (though my mother-in-law tells me how her husband used to buy the 12-bottle cartons of Coke or Miranda and smuggle it into his storeroom at work), and certainly no experiences with the rotiman!

So when Kit spoke about how he used to love Tang, that powdered orange drink, I stored it up in that particular recess of the mind that wives have for their husband's memories. When I saw Tang at Presto the other day, I knew I had to get a packet. The 200 gram packet was RM3.75, while the 400 gram was RM8. A bit silly, huh? So, while I like to indulge Kit, I also want him to watch his sugar intake, and being a savvy shopper, I opted for the smallest pack.

I know well enough not to expect angel choirs when I present Kit with stuff, so his mono reaction was old hat to me. He did open the pack and mix up a drink, but unlike me who can wax lyrical on the differences, or how it's stayed just the same, he was neutral. It was a good drink still, and great because you can make it as orangey or as light as you like. And that was that.

And here I was hoping for long reminisces on how Tang used to advertise in comics, using superstar footballer (now legend) Pele, as their spokesperson, and how the ad was hand drawn, and Pele was wearing a jersey with the Tang logo on it. There was also Tang's original packaging in glass bottles with either an orange or green top (uh oh, fuzzy memories). Oh well. Can't fault me for trying!