The Singapore Noodles Podcast

Over the weekend, a commentary that I wrote on hawker prices was published on CNA and has sparked a bit of debate. Much of the discussion has been robust and I thought I’d share my views on some of them:

“Letting hawkers set their own price at will is going to raise the cost of living for everyone. Thus, price controls are justified.” Some have argued that even though Singapore is a first world nation, the cost of housing and car ownership (though whether this is truly a necessity in Singapore is debatable) is a lot higher than many of its counterparts. The only thing that is keeping our cost of living in check is cheap hawker food and it’s been this way for decades, with keeping hawker food affordable being “a cornerstone of government policy”. But while cheap food might have been a possibility when hawkers were offered rent subsidies by the government, now with more than half of our hawkers not being on subsidised rents, that narrative is broken.

“If it’s not cheap, it’s not hawker food.” Because the ideology of hawker food being cheap food has been so pervasive, anyone who has grown up in Singapore in the past couple of decades would feel bothered by price hikes. This is an intuitive, reflexive response which is inevitable, even for someone like me who has grown accustomed to paying at least S$15 the minute I leave my home for a sit-down meal in Australia. Also, given that hawker prices are in the single digit range, any price hike feels significant (for example a rise of S$4 to S$6 is a 50% increase) and feelings of outrage even more knee-jerk.

If hawker food is not “cheap” and patrons have to clear their own trays and put up with no air-conditioning, some say that there is no reason to eat hawker food. “Might as well eat in an air-conditioned eatery.” Therein lies the problem - inherently, do we recognise the value of our hawker food? Do we truly feel that it is unique, world-class, and intangibly precious - everything we claim we believe when we nominated it for UNESCO? Because if we do, then the best way for us to demonstrate that belief is to put our money where our mouth is.

Comments that I read that grind my gears include things like: “Hawkers are using the excuse of inflation to charge higher.” or “Only when your food is good, then you can increase the price.” There was also this 8days article that I find troubling on many levels - the journalistic angle that emphasised the hawkers’ “uncommon sense of gratitude” when they choose to keep prices low amid economic pressures, and the way hawkers have internalised society’s expectations of them fulfilling the role of a social worker or charity in feeding “people with no money”. I referenced the article and addressed the line of thinking in these comments in the CNA938 radio interview that I’ve embedded in this newsletter.

What is worth our time discussing are solutions, especially with regard to considerations for low-income households & the problem of high rental and miscellaneous fees that plague hawkers. While 40% of hawkers are on the subsidised rental scheme (who pay between $56-320 per month), most have their rentals determined via a bidding system. The upper limit for this is usually S$5,000 but it can go up to even $10,000 a month as the fees are entirely dictated by the free market. And then you have hawkers whose landlords are not the government, but corporations such as Timbre who have been reported to charge an average of $4,000. How many plates of chicken rice would a hawker have to sell to break even and not make a loss - and we are only talking about rent as one part of the cost equation!

KF Seetoh, our country’s loudest voice for the hawkers, proposed that “the authorities get rid of the bidding process, offer a fair rental and give it to the most deserving ones, may it be based on the menu, talent and preservation of Singapore’s unique food culture.” But this opens up a can of worms. With demand surpassing supply of available stalls, how do we decide who is the most deserving? How do you quantify talent, especially amongst hawkers who cook in such varied styles?

A lot of food for thought, and definitely important discussions we should all have, if we are to ensure that our hawker food culture is to be preserved and kept alive for generations to come. If you have a perspective, please comment via the link below - I would love to hear from you:

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Five to six years ago, when I was working on Wet Market to Table, I came across the menu at Nouri where regional vegetables and fruit were celebrated in new and unexpected ways. Lots has changed since then and it is not uncommon now to see young chefs working with produce from our markets, but back then, it definitely got my interest. I’ve wanted to have a conversation with Chef Ivan for quite some time, but it never happened, owing mainly to the fact that I was leaving for Australia… so it was great that this chat finally happened and that it is on this podcast!

Ivan believes strongly in how food can connect us all, and he expresses it with eloquence. Towards the end of the conversation, he talks about how to keep tradition alive is to embrace “the Indian hand cooking Hokkien mee, and the Chinese hand folding prata”, and it is such a moving, beautiful picture of what our society and the Singaporean food fabric could look like. Instead of having sharp boundaries drawn around dishes, food can be such a unifier and common ground for us all!

I hope you enjoy this episode. And please let me know if you do... I always love getting comments and suggestions from listeners.

The Singapore Noodles podcast is back... and integrated into the newsletter! In this episode, I chat with Jimmy Teo, a young hawker who runs Huang Da Fu Bak Chor Mee at Commonwealth Crescent Market Food Centre. Pricing has always been a hotly debated issue when it comes to hawker food, and Jimmy shares candidly about struggles that hawkers face, and how we can keep hawker heritage alive by simply stepping into our own home kitchens. If you’d like to visit Jimmy and taste his bak chor mee, you can do so at: 31 Commonwealth Cres, #02-94, Singapore 149644.

On the same note, I recently wrote an article for CNA on hawker food prices abroad. Feel free to check that out if you’re keen, or leave a comment here on what you think about the pricing of hawker food in Singapore or overseas:

Vasunthara Ramasamy: "There are so many styles of chicken curry; there is even a white chicken curry. If Clarissa cooked that, people would say that that is not a Singaporean chicken curry. So what is Singaporean chicken curry? Do we have one? The consensus is that we can never have a national dish because it is very hard to represent Singapore. But why seek for singularity when you are so diverse? Why do we seek such homogenous experiences with Indian food?"

Vasunthara Ramasamy, Culinary Teacher and Masterchef Singapore Season 2 Contestant, shares about feeling pride as a Singaporean Indian, plus: *No-grind thosai* *How we can bring Indian home dishes to the masses* *Singaporean Indian food as a diasporic cuisine* *How Singaporean history impacted Indian food in Singapore* *Sardine curry* *Caste and Indian food culture* *Sense of inferiority that Singaporean Indians feel towards their food* *How the palate of Singaporean Indians differ from Indians in India* *Fish head curry* *Caste in Singapore* *Homogenization of Indian food in Singapore and Malaysia* *The rise of curry powder* *The case for making your own curry powder and spice blends* *Grinding your own turmeric powder and asafoetida* *Preconceived idea that Indian cuisine is not on par with European cuisine* *The need for more champions of Indian food* *Singaporean chicken curry saga* *Fear of failure as Singaporeans* *Home-cooking* *Her Masterchef journey*

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Preston Wong: "The goal should always be to make the message of sustainability and reducing food wastage as mainstream as possible. What point is there if it is just within that echo chamber of eco-conscious people? For us, we can break that barrier because price is not a big issue unlike other sustainable merchandise that may face challenges of accessibility due to price point issues. I would think that surplus food is a good bridge and show people that things can be affordable, and yet can be good stuff if you look beyond the exterior and short-dated condition of the item."

Preston Wong, CEO and lead innovator at Treatsure, shares about how his business tackles the problem of food waste, plus: *Reducing wastage from buffet lines* *The difficulties that buffet restaurants and hotels face in estimating the amount of food to prepare* *Grocery wastage* *Collaborations between partners and artisans to convert waste to new products* *Building a community* *The importance of education* *What keeps him going* *Using technology to reducing waste* *Why develop an app*

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Evelyn Yap: “Singapore is not an agricultural country. That limits the kind of produce we get, but also, we don’t know what is out there because our habits have changed to shopping at supermarkets, as opposed to wet markets, which stock more diverse produce.”

Evelyn Yap, chef & founder of Happivore, shares about her journey as a chef supporting farmers, plus: *How Rustic Canyon shaped the way she cooked* *Supporting farmers in Thailand* *How her experience in Thailand has impacted her as a cook* *Exposure to regional produce* *Favourite Asian vegetables* *Mental health* *How her Singaporean roots influenced her* *Fusion food* *Tips for making vegetables delicious* *Framework for learning how to use a new vegetable*

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Edmund Wee: “We don’t get a lot of chances to form relationships with people in our lives – we’re busy, we’re working. And you have to go shopping for your food. You either shop on Red Mart or the supermarket. Why do those two when there’s a third alternative, where you can do your marketing and at the same, you form relationships. Why not? It is so wonderful! So, it’s a no brainer for me to decide to go to the wet market. It is obvious to me to do so.”

Edmund Wee, publisher & CEO of Epigram Books, shares his insights on the book publishing industry, plus: *Wet market tips* *How Epigram started publishing cookbooks* *Epigram’s focus on Singapore and Singaporean stories* *Process of making a book* *Selection process* *Margins in the book publishing business* *Is print dead?* *Why read a book or cookbook?* *Why go to the market* *How wet markets can be improved* *Will wet markets survive?*

Shop Wet Market to Table via Epigram: https://epigrambookshop.sg/products/wet-market-to-table-a-modern-approach-to-fruit-and-vegetables

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Christopher Ng: “It is heartwrenching every time I go back to Singapore, because I see the difference. And it is a significant marked difference every year. I try to go to the places that are familiar to me, but even those places are changing rapidly although certain places are still familiar, I wonder how long they are going to last.”

Christopher Ng, the blogger behind Christopher’s Asian Delicacies, shares about his relationship with food growing up, plus: *Lakeview market* *The ungroundedness as an overseas Singaporean* *Kueh lapis* *Agak-agak approach* *The demise of home-baking and kueh-making in Singapore* *COVID’s role in preserving Singapore food culture* *Perceptions of Singaporean food culture* *Mastery in the kitchen* *The way the older generation instruct* *Food as love* *Singapore’s diverse food culture and crossovers* *Hae bee hiam*

Christopher Ng’s blog: https://delicacies070.blogspot.com/

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Khir Johari: “When we look at our understanding of Malay food, it is typically based on a narrow window, and that is the hawker centre. If you get a chance to visit Malay homes (your Malay neighbours or friends), that is where you get to see things that you don’t normally experience… Reading and travelling help to inform, and with that, you’ll come to understand the diversity and beauty of Malay food, and look at it as a very healthy diet. Any food you eat in excess is bad, regardless of your background, ethnicity, or geography.”

Khir Johari, author of The Food of Singapore Malays, shares about his new book, plus: *Who are the Malays* *How his interest in Singaporean Malay food began* *Lack in documentation of Malay gastronomy* *Mee siam* *Impact of urbanization and globalization on Singaporean Malay food* *Foraging in Malay food culture* *Ulam and seafood in the Malay diet* *Ways of cooking with greens* *Connecting with nature* *Concept of Peranakan in Singapore* *What can be problematic about the way Peranakan food is marketed these days* *Food as medicine* *Growing up years* *Kampong glam then and now* *Extinct dishes* *How we can embody the Malay ethos towards food in this modern day and age* *Hope for Singaporean food culture*

Khir Johari: https://www.thefoodofsingaporemalays.com/ @khir19

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Christy Chua and Tan Aik: “Through my interviewing experience in school or at The Slow Press, I feel that sometimes when we talk to older hawkers or business owners, they might be quite unwilling to share about what they do. Sometimes they would dismiss it as, ‘I do this everyday, nothing new. It’s just normal going to work. I come here, fry some noodles and go home.’ They’d literally tell me that. I’m sure there’s a story but I can’t seem to dig it out of them, and that leads me to think, ‘Are those profiles being featured on mainstream media like Our Grandfather Story? Are those profiles that are willing to be videoed the only stories that will live on?’

Christy Chua and Tan Aik, founder & editorial director and editor-in-chief of The Slow Press, an independent food zine, share about the niche that The Slow Press is filling, plus: *Why focus on homecooked food content* *How media shapes the food preferences of the young* *Mission of The Slow Press* *Why do print?* *Featuring Filipino community and cuisine* *How their interest and curiosity in Singaporean food began* *Getting Gen Zs interested in local food stories* *Challenges in ‘preserving’ and documenting local food culture*

The Slow Press: https://www.theslowpresszine.com/

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