Heritage

As we continued on our search for willing hawkers to interview, we managed to get in touch with Mdm Chua of 133 Mee Hoon Kuay who kindly agreed to have a chat and share her views with us. Though it was only 11am when we arrived, her stall had already sold out for the day. Nevertheless, we sat down for a quick chat with the effervescent and animated Mdm Chua.

From a housewife to a master hawker, she’s been in the trade for over 15 years selling her specialty handmade noodles. While her children were still young and money was tight, she decided to venture into setting up her own hawker stall to see how things would turn out.

Her stall has been situated in Bedok North Blk 216 ever since Mdm Chua first tried her hand at selling fried noodles. A few months down the road, she found that she was unable to cope with the crowds. Shortly after, she teamed up with a friend to start selling her very own handmade noodles. Her special handmade noodles are the result of numerous experiments over the years.

When asked about the difficulties faced by hawkers, Mdm Chua admitted that customer expectations were difficult to handle. People expect cheap and good food but prices keep rising which impacts their bottom line.

Because they will want everything to be cheap. But it is difficult because the prices of the supplies keep rising so very difficult to have it cheap

Over the past 15 years, she has never once raised her prices and instead opted to be content with a smaller profit margin. A bowl of handmade noodles starts from $2 and she is determined to keep it that way . Similarly, she also mentioned that food courts and coffee shops tend to raise rentals when business is good, making it difficult to sustain the business. However, the main attraction of hawker centers is that they tend to be affordable and cater for people from various socioeconomic backgrounds especially the elderly.

I never raised my prices in 15 years. The lian he zao bao came to interview and I told them as well

Hawker center is better la because food court very difficult . If your business is good, people will raise your rents. Just like coffee shop as well. Then when the rents goes up then it will be difficult to keep the food prices down. So it’s better for me to be at the hawker center so that I can keep my prices down since I only charged $2.

Singaporeans have a mistaken conception that being a hawker is a surefire way of making money but Mdm Chua candidly admits that it is a lot of work. Though she was already done for the day, she still needed to make her way home to start her preparations which includes preparing the flour to making the noodles. A typical day for her starts at 3am and ends when everything is sold out.

When it comes to the opening of new hawker centers, Mdm Chua felt that it would be greatly detrimental because these new hawker centers would no longer be under the purview of the government. Under private operators, rents would be substantially higher and that would make it an enormous challenge for future generations of hawkers. Her rent is currently manageable as the stall is leased from an old couple who have subsidized rent rates from the government.

Have. But I don’t think it’s good because the new hawkers are all own by private companies not the government so the rents will be high. Now my stall is rent from government.

Personally, Mdm Chua agrees that hawker centers and wet markets are an integral part of Singaporean culture. Faced with the onslaught of modernization, our traditions are gradually diminishing. By and large, Singaporeans are lacking in the passion to preserve the hawker culture. The skills that the hawkers have are not being appreciated and respected. Mdm Chua feels that this is a result of a more westernized mindset that has clashed with our traditional Asian culture resulting in a dilution.

Ya it’s a type of culture. If the government never build more hawker centre then that would be the end. Especially you see those wet markets, a lot of those giant and ntuc are coming up then youths don't like to go wet market because they find it very dirty hence people rather go to giant and ntuc. If you see overseas, there are still a lot of wet markets but for Singapore you can see wet market slowly getting demolished and eliminated. Some places only have hawker center but there isn’t any wet market anymore. If the wet market is near the hawker centre then it will bring business to hawker centres because people will come and eat after buying things.

Continuity is also an issue because the younger generation is unable to handle the hardships, resulting in the loss of culinary skills and the authentic tastes. Though foreign workers may be able to become hawkers, the quality will not be the same laments Mdm Chua. It would be ideal for her if she were able to pass the stall on to her son but at the same time she admits that it is very much dependent on what her son feels. Armed with his Shatec degree, Mdm Chua feels that her son can innovate and change up her recipe to come up with new and creative cuisine. If young people are willing to work hard, Mdm Chua feels that there is actually great potential in being a hawker.

Will need to see if the person have the passion lo. My son know how to do all these but not sure if he will want to take over. But I hope he will take over. Because he can improvised my noodles. Don’t have to just do ban mian. Can become like western food or something.

Despite schemes such as the Hawker Master Trainer Program, Mdm Chua thinks that not many young people would take it up due to the immense amount of labour and time involved. She estimates that new stalls would face teething problems for at most a year before things would gradually become better and more stable. It took her 3 years to perfect her skills before her stall was able to flip a decent profit margin.

The main draw of hawker center continues to be their affordability as compared to food courts and cafes which not everyone can actually afford. In future, rising rents look to be a bugbear and will result in more difficulties for the hawkers. However,Mdm Chua hopes that the hawker culture will remain.

Of course I hope that hawker centre can be preserved. Because if you talk about those food court and cafes, some people cannot even afford. Not worth it. Hawker center does not have any GST or extra charges.

#Hawkerculture #Food #banmian #meehoonkuay #hawkerfood