When was the last time you had kacang puteh?
It used to be one of the favourite snacks for movie-goers, dating couples at the theme parks and football fans watching an exciting match. Nowadays, there are not many kacang puteh (“white nuts or beans” in Malay; other spelling variations are kacang putih and kachang puteh) vendors left in Singapore.
There is one just outside the Peace Centre though, where the humble mobile stall is manned by a husband-and-wife team since the early 2010s. They offer a wide variety of titbits to choose from – from the usual peanuts – roasted, sugared or salted – to chickpeas (kacang kuda), green peas, cashews, corns, tapioca and even murukku. The customer can choose one type of snack or mix several together. The vendor will then scoop and wrap the titbits with a piece of white paper into a conical shape that makes it easy for the customer to carry and eat. The wrapping medium in the past used to be newspapers or pages torn from old school exercise books, but they are no longer used due to hygiene concerns.
Each cone of kacang puteh is priced between $1 and $1.50, depending on the type of snacks. Back in the sixties and seventies, one could help himself with a kacang puteh treat at anything between 5c and 10c. For example, in 1977, kacang puteh typically cost 10c each. By comparison, a copy of the Sunday Times was 30c and a packet of nasi lemak cost 50c. The price of kacang puteh rose to 30c to 40c by the late eighties.
Kacang puteh vendors of the past mostly came from Tanjore, South India (present-day Thanjavur district). The daily work of a kacang puteh vendor typically started at 5am, when he would use sand to fry the peanuts to bring out the natural flavour of the nuts. This usually took three hours. Firewood used for the cooking would enhance the peanut flavour but the usage of gas became more common by the eighties. When ready, the vendor would make his way to his designated spot outside the cinema to sell his kacang puteh.
Many old kacang puteh vendors dreamt of making enough and returning to their home towns. Some made it, most did not and eventually settled in Singapore. Several, after paying for the rental, accommodation and remittance back home, could barely survive and had to take on second jobs such as the night watchman.
As time changed and the society evolved, kacang puteh vendors also faced different types of challenges. First, the supermarkets all around Singapore offer similar titbits and snacks available in bulks and at lower prices. Also, movie goers’ taste have switched to the likes of popcorns and hotdogs. Moreover, the movie industry entered a slump in the nineties, leading to the closure of many old cinemas.
Food hygiene practices and food safety standards for street hawkers also became more stringent. In 1974, the Ministry of the Environment carried out islandwide checks and inspection, resulting in 180 hawkers, including dozens of kacang puteh sellers, being warned or fined for contaminated food or operating without licenses. A parliamentary session in 1985 debated the public health issue and how the relocation of street hawkers had affected the kacang puteh and rojak sellers.
In 1975, the Ministry of Education disallowed school tuckshops from selling unwholesome food such as prickled and unripe fruits, but kacang puteh, popular among the students, managed to avoid the ban as the food was typically cooked, dry and had low possibility of deterioration.
If you happen to pass by Peace Centre next time, do show your support to this fading trade. You can at the same time relive some of those good old memories with a tasty cone of kacang puteh.
Published: 1 December 2021
Remember Singapore 
Fun trivia 1 – Two winning racehorses in 1970 were named Kacang Puteh and Goreng Pisang.
Fun trivia 2 – There was a popular http://www.kacangputeh.com in the late nineties but the website ceased to exist in 2000 after the owner retired.
What was the website about? And would there be any sort of archive available on the internet?
It should be an online store selling kacang puteh in larger quantity, similar to this Malaysian one: https://ctskacangputeh.com/
When I was little & living in Sembawang Hills Estate we used to have kachang puteh men walking down the street carrying their wares on the turbans which were on their heads. Our mum used to give us a few cents to buy the treats & the men would put down their loads, sit on a small stool & sell to the people in the street. All the kids in the street would get together & eat out kachang puteh & socialise.
Peace Centre may be demolished and redeveloped in near future…
Peace Centre/Peace Mansion goes for $650m to Singapore firms in private treaty deal
3 December 2021
The Straits Times
A group involving several Singapore-listed companies has made a successful $650 million offer for Peace Centre/Peace Mansion in a private treaty deal following the close of its collective sale tender earlier this year, the companies announced on Friday (Dec 3).
The group comprises Chip Eng Seng, a SingHaiyi joint venture and Ultra Infinity, which is equally owned by a unit of KSH Holdings, SLB Development and Ho Lee Group.
The SingHaiyi joint venture, Sing-Haiyi Crystal, is 50/50 held by a SingHaiyi Group subsidiary and an entity controlled by Singapore billionaire couple Gordon Tang and his wife Celine. The couple are controlling shareholders of both SingHaiyi and Chip Eng Seng.
Chip Eng Seng and SingHaiyi had in May partnered with Chuan Investments to clinch Maxwell House for $276.8 million in an en bloc tender.
Peace Centre/Peace Mansion made its sixth attempt at a collective sale in September this year, with the owners expecting offers in excess of $650 million.
Located at 1 Sophia Road, the District 9 property was built around 1977. It comprises 232 commercial units, 86 apartments and a carpark with 162 lots, totalling 319 strata lots in a 10-storey front podium block and a rear 32-storey tower.
The site currently has a 99-year tenure starting from June 2, 1970. The joint offerors will seek in-principle approval from the Singapore Land Authority to issue a fresh 99-year lease.
They will also seek approval from the Urban Redevelopment Authority to redevelop the property into a mixed-use commercial and residential development. The site, which spans 7,118 sq m, is currently zoned “commercial”.
Chip Eng Seng, Sing-Haiyi Crystal and Ultra Infinity will form a joint venture for the property’s acquisition and redevelopment. Chip Eng Seng will hold the largest stake at 40 per cent, with the two partners taking 30 per cent each.
The acquisition is subject, among others, to the joint offerors obtaining a sale order approving the collective sale, meeting planning criteria and getting the lease topped up.
Peace Centre/Peace Mansion is near shopping amenities such as Bugis Junction, Bugis+, Plaza Singapura, The Cathay, Wilkie Edge and GR.iD. There are also six MRT stations within 1km distance – Rochor, Bencoolen, Dhoby Ghaut, Bras Basah, Little India and Bugis.
The development is also near educational institutions such as Singapore Management University, the School of the Arts, Lasalle College of the Arts, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and Kaplan City Campus.
Schools within a 1km radius include St Margaret’s Primary School and Stamford Primary School. Others within 2km of the site include Anglo-Chinese School (Junior), Farrer Park Primary School, River Valley Primary School and St Joseph’s Institution Junior.
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/peace-centrepeace-mansion-goes-for-650m-to-singapore-firms-in-private-treaty-deal
I was told in the olden days kachang puteh men selling their nuts at night used light from a flame burning at the top of a metal rod pushed through a small Ovaltine can filled with cow dung as fuel. Have you seen or are you aware of such instances? I googled but couldn
t find any image or information on such itinerant kachang puteh men with cow dung lights.
Peace Centre kacang puteh seller finds new home at Toa Payoh Bus Interchange
14 August 2023
The Straits Times
One of Singapore’s last kacang puteh sellers has recently relocated to Toa Payoh Bus Interchange, in front of the escalators leading to the HDB Hub.
Previously operating out of a pushcart outside Peace Centre for the past decade, Mr Amirthaalangaram Moorthy had to relocate his stall in July because of the shopping centre’s impending redevelopment.
SBS Transit spokesman Grace Wu said the public transport operator had approached Mr Moorthy in April, and offered him rent-free space with a specially designed kiosk at the bus interchange – costing $15,000 to set up – for one year as a start.
Mrs Wu said the company reached out to Mr Moorthy after learning about the uncertainty of his stall’s future, given the impending redevelopment of Peace Centre.
Mr Moorthy said this was the only relocation offer he had received, and that it came at an opportune time. His kacang puteh stall was given a new lease of life when it began operations at its new location in Toa Payoh on Aug 1.
The stall is run by Mr Moorthy, 57, and his wife, Mrs Vasantha Moorthy, 58, together with a new assistant they hired in the second week of their stall’s reopening.
Each cone of the old-school snack, filled to the brim with titbits, costs $1.50.
Open from 11am to 7pm from Monday to Saturday, the stall often closes earlier once the kacang puteh is sold out. Every Sunday, Mr and Mrs Moorthy fry batches of ingredients at home to prepare for the upcoming week’s sales.
Mr Moorthy said the new spot is “a lot better”, with increased footfall at the bus interchange, compared with his pushcart location at Peace Centre in the Selegie area, which saw fewer customers as most shop owners and tenants had moved out following the shopping centre’s collective sale.
He said that there has been a 5 per cent increase in his earnings at this new kiosk at Toa Payoh, compared with the pre-Covid-19-pandemic days at his pushcart outside Peace Centre.
The 57-year-old, who has been selling his old-school snack for 10 years, was coy about disclosing his earnings, saying it had only been less than a fortnight since the reopening, and that he would still need to see how the business pans out.
When The Straits Times visited his stall on Friday afternoon, a long-time customer, Mr Seetho Kok Foo, came by to pass the seller a hand-drawn illustration of Mr Moorthy standing at his old pushcart outside Peace Centre.
Mr Seetho, 67, a retiree, said: “I’ve been buying kacang puteh (from the stall) for almost 20 years, and it still tastes (just) as good… Sometimes I would buy as many as 10 (cones) as my colleagues love his kacang puteh… I hope this new location will bring him more business.”
Mr Moorthy was initially offered a spot next to the side entrance of the McDonald’s restaurant at the bus interchange, but he requested the current location, which is “more centralised”. SBS Transit obliged.
He enjoys plying his trade as the stall brings people of all races and ages together. “I like how they come to tell me that my kacang puteh is delicious,” he said.
Middle-aged and elderly people form the bulk of his customer base at the bus interchange.
In its initial days in the 1960s, the family business – run by Mr Moorthy’s grandfather then – had moved locations several times, from a kampung in Hougang, to Capitol Theatre, to Bedok’s Princess Theatre, and then Queen’s Theatre in Geylang.
Following that, from the 1970s to 2013, Mr Moorthy’s grandfather and father sold kacang puteh from their pushcart in Balestier Road before ending up at Peace Centre.
Mr Moorthy said he hopes to keep the family business going for at least 10 more years, preferably at his current spot at Toa Payoh Bus Interchange. He said he was happy with the air-conditioning and high footfall, compared with his outdoor pushcart at Peace Centre.
The public transport operator also provided him with a power outlet that allows him to warm chickpeas up in an electric steamer, so he can serve customers fresh kacang puteh.
Mr Moorthy said his children, aged 18 and 25, do not have plans to take over his business for now but will need to “see how” it goes.
SBS Transit’s Mrs Wu said: “For the commuting public, Mr Moorthy, who is the last of the vanishing breed of kacang puteh men, adds colour, interest and vibrancy to our air-conditioned bus interchange and juxtaposes the past with the present.”