Hawkers: Success & Succession Three stories of Singapore’s food legends’ quest for continuity All rights reserved National Library Board, Singapore (NLB) 2013

This work was exclusively created for the Singapore Memory Project, NLB www.SingaporeMemory.sg

Text & Design by: Makansutra (S) Pte Ltd

Photos by: Makansutra (S) Pte Ltd (unless stated otherwise)

Published by: National Library Board, Singapore 100 Victoria Street #14-01 National Library Building Singapore 188064 Republic of Singapore Tel: +65 6332 3255 email: [email protected] www.nlb.gov.sg

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ISBN 978-981-07-7228-4

2 Contents

Foreword 04

Introduction 05

The Natural Nasi Lemak Pilot 06

Dearth and Death of a Hawker Legend 12

He Sells Fish Selflessly 19

3 Foreword Street food hawking in Singapore during the tumultuous pre- and post-war era, was a means to make ends meet. Migrants, deprived of economic opportunities, resorted to culinary ingenuity and hawked their family heirloom recipes on the streets, often illegally. This became a way to feed the masses affordably.

Over the decades, as lifestyle and expectations changed, food culture went from itinerant to iconic. Hawkers were housed in custom-built hawker centres with basic hygiene facilities by the late 1980s, and eating, naturally, became a national pastime.

But due to economic advancements and evolving expectations of a newer generation, the life of this well-loved local food culture is slowly ebbing away. Many of the older generation of hawkers and their once young assistants are already past retirement age or nearing it, with no natural successors of this culture in sight. While there are concerns from both the public and private sectors over the effect of this “cancer”, very little is being done to address the problems of continuity.

In a country that is of late so easily influenced by foreign cultures and trends, Makansutra feels that our hawker food is one of our nation’s last bastions of culture. Our unique street flavours have links to our past and migrant heritage. It traces the “culinary silk route” of Singapore. It’s the most unctuous language of our culture.

The stories told here are about the natural, unnatural and unfortunate tales of the rebirth, death and dearth of our Singapore street food culture.

KF Seetoh Makan Guru CEO Makansutra

4 Introduction

The quest for continuity of our beloved street food culture has been the biggest bugbear of the street food industry here. Even the government and the food loving public are up in arms over the potential dearth and death of this culture of ours, and are finding ways and means to preserve it.

The younger, more affluent generation do not find being a hawker appealing, with its long working hours, menial nature and sweatshop-like conditions. This is coupled with operation and management woes and the pressure to keep food cost low even as labour cost increases.

All hawkers, especially the successful ones, are bound to face the question of succession. In the last three years, at least three old-generation hawkers suddenly found themselves confronted with the issue.

Mr Ng Siaw Meng whose name was synonymous with satay beehoon, Mr Hassan Abdul Kadir who was considered a nasi lemak legend and master, and Mr Loh Mun Hon whose family created many signature dishes like sum lo hor fun, were all dealt the same card by the hand of fate. But each generated a different outcome to their quest for continuity and a future legacy.

Through the families and disciples they left behind, we trace the journeys of these hawkers’ quest for succession. One was unplanned, one masterminded it, and the other, only thought about it when it was too late. We also shed light on their children’s stories on why they did or didn’t carry on their parents’ famous street food legacies and successful businesses. We unveil the challenges they faced, and why the old spirit of running a food business is difficult to upkeep in this day and age.

5 The Natural Nasi Lemak Pilot

SELERA RASA NASI LEMAK, ADAM ROAD FOOD CENTRE

Abdul Malik Hassan had always wanted to be an airline pilot, but his father had other plans for him and his four siblings – to manage the family’s renowned Selera Rasa Nasi Lemak business. And in their family, hierarchy and respect for the wishes of the elders and seniors come first.

Being the eldest child, Malik was the “crown prince” of the business. His father ensured he learnt the craft of making nasi lemak as a teenager. After graduating from university, Malik continued helping out at the stall at the elder Hassan’s insistence, but in between, he sold signboards to petrol stations. He dutifully traded his tie for a T-shirt to help at the stall each evening, unaware that one day, the switch would be permanent.

6 Malik, the “crown prince” of Selera Rasa Nasi Lemak, took over the reins after his father passed on.

It was when Malik finally received a call to go for an interview as a pilot at age 31 that his father gently and firmly laid down the rules and family plan – he was to take over the family’s nasi lemak business instead. Freedom gave way to duty and filial piety. By then, he was fully equipped to take over because his father had systematically planned it all along. In Malik’s words: “machiam Jackie Chan kena trained kung fu” (like how Jackie Chan was taught kung fu).

7 Like a true master of his craft, Malik reveals some tricks and tips of the trade: break eggs first into a bowl to ascertain their freshness; the patterns on a cucumber’s skin reveal the moisture in the vegetable; rougher basmati grains yield fluffier rice; curly dried chillies are milder than the straight ones; ikan bilis from Vietnam are thinner and crispier; fresh fish smells like the sea, not the freezer – all expert knowledge not noticed by customers and lesser peers.

Crispy ikan bilis from Vietnam.

Fresh eggs with runny yolk.

Tweaks he made to the recipe included removing acar from the menu, because he found that nasi lemak packed with the spicy pickled vegetable spoiled and went rancid faster.

The elder Hassan died of lung cancer in late 2011, but his vision of continuing of the family-run business carries on. Today, five years after

8 Business is as good, if not better, as their father’s time. helming the business, Malik still manages and delivers, consistently to the incessant queues at their stall each day. Even our prime minister and the president are his regulars. Even though he has received invitations to open franchises in food courts, hawker centres and even abroad, he has remained at Adam Road, where his father started in 1998. Just as his father had wished, the stall is now run by Malik and his siblings – the only people he trusted with the cooking.

9 “Only family will ensure that every step of the Each of them has their own special skills and cooking is done right,” says Malik. strengths to contribute to the family business.

“Only family will cut the cucumbers into equal sizes,” Malik reasoned. They have since opened another outlet in Ang Mo Kio.

Malik’s third and youngest brothers chop and fry for him, while his sister, who among them makes the best sambal, prepares the chilli at their Ang Mo Kio outlet and then delivers it to them. His second brother, who has a day job, cleans up the stall in the evening. “This business has brought us closer, like in those days before we all got married and moved into our own homes,” said Malik. Malik has also declared that every Friday would be a rest day, so that the entire family, including the children, can get together at their mother’s place.

10 The Hassan family, including Mailk (third from right), his three brothers (left), sister (far right) and mother (second from right).

With the business becoming more promising and successful, Malik is already looking to involve the third generation. After hearing his teachers and classmates praise the family’s nasi lemak many times, his 14-year- old son proudly announced he would help out at the stall after completing his National Service.

While Malik wasn’t a willing successor, unlike his eager son, he harbours no regrets. When he watches his customers clean off their plates, he feels as though he is on top of the world.

11 Dearth and Death of a Hawker Legend

MENG KEE SATAY BEE HOON,

Image courtesy of Meng Kee Satay Bee Hoon EAST COAST LAGOON FOOD CENTRE

Ng Siaw Meng was christened a “Hawker Legend” in 2005, a street food award accorded by food rating and food consultancy company Makansutra, with the support of the Singapore Tourism Board and the National Environment Agency. The award has not been handed out since, as such top flight street food masters are few and far between. Image courtesy of Meng Kee Satay Bee Hoon

Meng Kee Satay Bee Hoon’s first location at the now-defunct “three-milestone” market in Upper Serangoon.

12 Image courtesy of Meng Kee Satay Bee Hoon

Mr Ng Siaw Meng started out young in the hawker business.

At the age of 12, Mr Ng had not had much education and hence, had no choice but to inherit his father’s street food business. He took over the reins at 27 when his father passed on and it was under his watch that the family’s hawker reputation reached its zenith. Mr Ng was one of the first hawkers to introduce self-service – seen as arrogant then – but it was because he did not want to overwork his aging mother.

13 Arguably the most famous satay bee hoon in Singapore.

Mr Ng was truly a hawker legend – he toiled diligently everyday at his humble stall at the East Coast Lagoon Food Village, churning out consistently top notch satay bee hoon, a uniquely Singaporean dish.

His creation: a savoury, earthy, five-spice powder-laced peanut sauce tossed with blanched vermicelli (because it enhanced, and did not detract from the character of the sauce), topped with kangkong, pork slices, tau pok (dried tofu), cuttlefish, prawns, pig’s liver (making it a filling one-dish meal), bean sprouts for crunch, and blood cockles for an umami flavour. It was the stuff of legends.

14 However, over time Mr Ng began to get thinner for no apparent reason. He was eventually diagnosed with late stage stomach cancer.

Upon the unfortunate diagnosis, Mr Ng knew he had to do something to keep the family brand alive. He announced that he was willing to sell his “legendary” recipe to the right person. A few showed interest with one being very keen but backed out when he learnt just how complex this seemingly simple dish was.

Mr Ng accorded his children the freedom of choice and was happy to let them choose their own career paths and become successful in their own right. His son was into music and became a teacher, while this daughter was an executive at a hospital.

15 Image courtesy of Meng Kee Satay Bee Hoon

Mr Ng and his family on a rare outing at East Coast Park.

Mr Ng never once saw his fame and success as a “brand”, something, if given thought, could be turned into a business. To him, he was just a hawker, working hard to support the family. He could have developed products, sauces, taught at schools, created franchise operations in the region, but it was not to be.

16 Mr Ng’s deteriorating health received wide coverage in local newspapers.

Even though his brother (and assistant) was paralysed after a fall at home, he did not think about the continuity of the business. His wife said: “He was only concerned about the family, not the business.”

Mr Ng succumbed to his illness in November 2012. The culinary heritage and recipe that his father had handed down to him, and Meng Kee Satay Beehoon, have been lost forever.

17 18 He Sells Fish Selflessly

HONG KONG STREET CHUN KEE In its heydays, Hong Kong Street Chun Kee was the go-to-place for sum lo hor fun, har cheong kai and fish head bee hoon. At one stage, the stall sold about 150kg of hor fun (rice sheet noodles) per day, an amount an average cze char (referring to a stall selling ala carte dishes served with rice or porridge) stall would take a week to clear. It was very tempting for the cooks to strike out on their own with recipes they had learnt.

Hong Kong Street Chun Kee began in the 1960s at Hong Kong Street, once a bustling lane in town lined with itinerant hawkers. Mdm Leung Sow On was a helper at a stall that sold fish head bee hoon and har cheong kai. When her boss retired, she took over the business and named it after her daughter, Loh Pui Chun (hence the name Hong Kong Street Chun Kee), who played second fiddle to the head chef. Her son, Mr Loh Mun Hon, who would later take over the business, minded the stall.

Their signature sum lo hor fun was born only after they moved to Telok Ayer Street. According to Mr Loh’s younger brother and their ex-employees, cooking noodles with fish slices, bean sprouts and julienned spring onions was a special request made by a customer from Hong Kong. This plain-looking hor fun dish received a lukewarm response from other

19 Sum lo hor fun received a lukewarm response from Singaporeans until it was featured in a local television programme.

customers until a local television programme featured it in the 1990s. That propelled Hong Kong Street Chun Kee to fame and many chefs wanted to learn how to prepare the dish.

It was a conundrum most towkays (bosses) of such stalls faced – to teach their cooks to prepare their dishes well but risk having them become part of the competition eventually. But Mr Loh, or Ah Hon as he was widely known in the industry, understood that employee loyalty was precious, and that it would be far more dreadful if his cooks established copycat stalls with poorly cooked food. He allowed the disciples in his kitchen to not only bear his stall’s name if they struck out on their own, but also allowed them to copy his signature presentation style – but on one condition.

20 Ah Hon had a fish farm in Malaysia that reared fish specifically for his business. He once told Makansutra (while filming for its television series in 2001), that in exchange for using the Hong Kong Street brand and style, the stalls would get their seafood and fish supplies from him. It was pure business logic and since it was a far better deal than a

Har cheong kai which derives its unique flavour from the savoury prawn paste marinade is another Hong Kong Chun Kee staple. 21 franchise arrangement, many agreed to Ah Hon’s condition. Ah Hon would not have to worry about suspicious accounting over franchise commissions. It was a simple, yet shrewd business move.

Unbeknown to him, that business strategy yielded a far deeper impact on our food culture – it ensured continuity. Today, we see many “direct disciples” and distant pupils of Hong Kong Street cze char stalls sprouting all over the island.

22 There are at least a few dozen of such stalls in Singapore today, but only a few belong to the original owner Ah Hon, who once told us, “It was okay by me, so long as they could provide jobs for at least 10 people, it meant providing a living for families too.”

Ah Hon succumbed to cancer in 2009 after a decade-long fight with the illness, but his family’s Hong Kong Street cze cha legacy lives on. Unintentionally, he gave Singapore the invaluable gift of a culinary heritage we can be proud of.

One can’t claim to be a loyal customer of Hong Kong Street Chun Kee without having tried their fish head bee hoon.

23 HONG KONG STREET HAR CHEONG KAI RECIPE

24 Methods Add all ingredients (except chicken, tapioca starch and oil) into a bowl and mix Ingredients well. Add chicken wings into the marinade and 1 kg chicken wings, mix well. only drumettes and flats (centre) Add tapioca starch and peanut oil into the 24 g prawn paste mixture and toss until the batter coats the chicken evenly. Do not stir for too long or 1/2 egg the batter will become very dense after 1 tsp baking powder frying. Also, make sure to perform step three only after step two, otherwise the 20 g sesame oil tapioca starch and peanut oil will clog up 12 g shaoxing wine the pores of the chicken and prevent it from absorbing the marinade. 30 g water Refrigerate the marinated chicken wings pepper to taste overnight (at least 6 hours). 100 g tapioca starch Just before frying, allow the chicken wings 70 g peanut oil to sit at room temperature for about 10 to cooking oil 15 minutes. Toss them a little to loosen the batter.

Meanwhile, add oil (enough to submerge the wings) into a wok and heat it up over high heat for about 5 minutes. One by one, drop the chicken wing into the oil. Once all the wings are in the oil, turn the fire down to medium low heat so that the skin is browned but not burnt by the time the meat inside is cooked thoroughly. Fry for 4.5 to 5 minutes. The wings will float to the surface once they are ready. Just before plating, turn up the fire to maximum heat for about 5 seconds to purge out the oil from the chicken. Remove the chicken with a colander, then turn off the fire. Serve the har cheong kai with a squeeze of lime and your favourite chilli sauce.

Ah Hon’s former head chef, Mr Lim Kwang Wah of 136 Hong Kong Street Fish Head Bee Hoon, kindly shared this recipe with us, just as someone else shared it with him. But the real trick, as we all know it, is in the cook’s skill.

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