Milo Dinosaur
by Samarth Misra
Singapore, as a solarpunk city of the future, offers a range of excellent experiences. Of all the things to discuss, however, I want to focus on Milo Dinosaur. Spectacular name aside, at first glance, Milo Dinosaur is unremarkable – water, Milo, and condensed milk mixed together and topped off with a heap of Milo powder (evoking a dinosaur-like appearance, they say). See my artist rendering below:
On my first or second morning in Singapore, my brother and I stepped out of our hotel to a nearby street café to grab a Kopi. On the menu, next to a list of at least 12 types of Kopi, I saw Milo Dinosaur. I sped through my Kopi-C and moved on to the Milo Dinosaur promptly. Chocolatey and super sweet. Not surprising.
Seeing the immense popularity of this drink across Singapore and Malaysia though made me want to dig deeper. Residents say the main reason behind its popularity is nostalgia. Milo is a central fixture in the Singaporean childhood story, I’m told, perhaps analogous to Bournvita in India.
There is much more to Milo Dinosaur, however. It highlights some of the most interesting aspects of Singapore’s history, arguably ones with significant persistent effects:
Colonial legacy
Milo was born in Australia and brought to Singapore and Malaysia primarily via colonial routes. There remain several strong indicators of colonial reverence throughout Singapore today, including numerous statues and plaques dedicated to Raffles and other officials of the British Empire. Singapore is understandably grateful to the British, especially after the disastrous Japanese occupation of the 1940s. It’s not a straight line from Singapore’s colonial past to Milo Dinosaur, but if not for the British, there would likely be no Milo Dinosaur or Milo Godzilla (+ ice cream).
National identity
You see several cases of global cultural artifacts being adopted by Singapore and made truly, uniquely Singaporean in the process. Prata is a potential example. It is the most Singaporean thing to grab a cheese Prata (or chicken Murtabak) for lunch and wash it down with a Milo Dinosaur. I speculate that “Paratha” was brought over by Indians involved in the Opium trade in the 1800s.
Malaysian connexion
Singapore and Malaysia are poles apart on most important dimensions. GDP per capita, growth, quality of institutions, state capacity, human capital, etc. This was not always the case.
GDP per capita (current USD in thousands); Source: World Bank
To say that Singaporean culture is a palimpsest of Malaysian culture is not an exaggeration. The cultural overlap and influence these countries have on each other is one of the most enjoyable things to observe. Anecdotally, Southern Chinese restaurants seemed to be most common in Singapore, followed by Malaysian. As for Milo Dinosaur - it was on virtually every café menu in Kuala Lumpur. It is important to note that Singapore celebrates its National Day on 9th August, the day on which in 1965 it gained independence from Malaysia (this having been considered more momentous than the day it was retaken from the Japanese).
