Grit

Mr. Tan may be considered a novice given his mere 8 years of experience as a hawker in Singapore but, make no mistake, this burly chef has spent decades behind the kitchen whipping up dishes on streets and in food places across China. Bringing traditional dishes like the Heng Hua style lor mee and prawn noodles to our shores, he is one brilliant example of how our hawker centres offer a world of delicacies at affordable prices to heartlanders. His well-worn blue polo tee and grey bermudas belied the fine business acumen he held which we gradually came to know about.

“The second stall of the opposite row...at the corner...that’s my son’s stall,”

quipped Tan whimsically, when we probed him if his son will carry on his business. Given that they did not know English, both father and son entered the hawker industry as they believed it was the only way they could earn a living sustainably. However, he warns that being a hawker is hard work:

“we open from for 13 hours 6 days a week, from preparing the food at 7am to closing shop at 8pm”.

As such, he concurs with other hawkers that although there have been some new rising young hawkers, he believes young people are unlikely to take up the mantle and preserve the hawker culture.

When asked if business was unpredictable, he calmly replied that though his customers may eat from other stalls once in a while, his key to retaining them is in making his food good. Just like when he first set up shop and had to create a niche in selling traditional Heng Hua food, he still persists till today in constantly reviewing the taste of his food every few months and even changing dishes once in a while to create a competitive edge over his competitors. It is an arduous process involving his friends and family members who help to taste and comment but he feels it is worthwhile and absolutely necessary.

“You see those people who have never change their cooking at all after opening shop? They close very soon, you can’t do that, you can’t just keep cooking and cooking without tasting it,” shared Tan matter-of-factly.

Tan would know as he had to modify the traditional Chinese dishes to suit local tastebuds when he first set up shop at Sims Vista Market and Food Centre in 8yrs. Before successfully balloting for a place here, he had been renting sublet stalls at 53 Sims Place, Pasir Panjang and other places. Beyond ensuring that the quality of his food was top-notch, he also had to push out new dishes when his dishes were copied by fellow hawkers. There were other challenges too: when he raised the prices of some dishes by 50 cents along with another hawker, customers immediately went to other stalls and his earnings took a beating for several months. Such treatment, perhaps, show how much the public actually despise the worthiness of Tan’s cooking that they are not willing to pay an additional half a dollar to reward the effort which he puts into maintaining the quality of his food.

Despite this, he still thinks it is important to serve his customers the best. They may not understand the need to raise prices because of inflation and rising commodity prices but he believes they should not be shortchanged for the quality they pay for. His philosophy must have paid off: as we moved to the other side of the hawker centre for another interview, we had residents of the community coming to tell us that the chicken cutlet noodles at this stall was a fresh concept when it first came out and it is really nice.

#hawkerculture #Banmian #Food