Hawkers can teach hired hands and partners how to cook their dishes, but they can’t teach them to care, says cookbook author Pamelia Chia.
The author has often heard her elders lament that food in the past was much better, but always believed it to be nostalgia talking. Now, she's wondering if there’s some truth in the sentiment. On their last day of operations, I woke up at the crack of dawn and got on a bus. A queue had already formed despite the hour and the aunties in line were clearing out entire trays of the kueh on display. I joined the queue and, when my turn came, snagged a variety of the confectionery’s offerings.
In my childhood, I’ve heard the common refrain of food in the past being much better, but believed it to be my elders’ nostalgia talking. Now, I’m wondering if there’s a grain of truth in the sentiment.This apparent decline seems to be symptomatic of the complicated issues that plague the hawker trade as a whole.
Sean Kee Duck Rice’s Albert Sng, a second-generation hawker, shared in a 2023 interview that his stall’s beloved chilli condiment alone demands frying 100kg of chillies for up to five hours. NEA’s efforts to tackle this problem have seen limited success so far - only seven veteran hawkers have enrolled in the Hawkers Succession Scheme since its launch in 2022. For context, in 2023, there were approximately 13,430 licensed hawker stalls in Singapore.
The answer came when I dropped by an eatery that has become popular on social media for their kaya toast. The kaya was thick and luscious, propping up the bread for a great Instagram photo. However, when I tasted it, it seemed to have been thickened expediently with cornstarch rather than by the patient coagulation of eggs.
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