NEWS & EVENTS

Sep 5, 2010
Hand-Made
It is tedious work, but some hawkers still make their food from scratch as they do not want to compromise on qualityBy Rebecca Lynne Tan

PHOTO: ST

Retiree Rose Chee, 73, and her housewife daughter, Geraldine Lim, 40, have had many meals over 30 years of eating at the hawker stalls in Ghim Moh market.

And while they enjoy a variety of food, they almost always order a serving of chwee kueh from the Ghim Moh Chwee Kueh stall about once each week.

Mrs Lim, who was tucking into the tasty steamed rice cakes with her mother and toddler son last Friday morning, says: ‘The chwee kueh here is just right and does not have too much of that garlicky flavour that most other places do.’

She adds that hand-made chwee kueh is one of the dishes that has become ‘increasing rare’ and wants to eat it while it is still available.

‘I much prefer coming here than going to a food court, where everything is from a factory.’

In Singapore, where stall owners can easily buy perfectly manufactured food items from factory suppliers, there are still some operators who go the extra mile, taking pride in making food items from scratch.

LifeStyle went in search of some of these stalls (see stories on this page and the facing page).

Their fishballs and beefballs are spherical but not perfectly so. Popiah skins are a little jagged at the edges.

Baos have feather-light skins, and chendol – those distinctive green, worm-like dumplings – are soft and flavourful. They are not a radioactive green from colouring, either.

Although the work is tedious and labourintensive, food operators say they continue to make things by hand because they want to maintain standards and continue their traditions and heritage.

Furthermore, they say it just does not taste the same if they do not make it themselves, and customers will know it.

When you make it yourself, you have more control over the taste, hawkers say.

Madam Yvonne Lee, 42, who owns rice roll stall Freshly Made Chee Cheong Fun at Old Airport Road Food Centre, says: ‘It just tastes different, the texture is also different. When we make fresh chee cheong fun, we can control the taste and texture, which is smoother and softer.’

The founder of the Makansutra food guide, Mr K.F. Seetoh, 48, agrees.

He says: ‘It is a world of difference. It is not rocket science, it is just hard work.’

Yet, customers do not have to pay a lot for all this hard work. A hand-made bao costs 50 cents.

Perhaps hawkers who hand-make their food items should consider increasing their prices to justify their hard work and long hours, some people in the food industry suggest.

Food consultant Violet Oon, 61, says: ‘Food from scratch tastes wonderful. It is very difficult and takes a lot of work – the prices people are paying do not justify the effort.’

She adds: ‘And because it takes so much time and effort, these operators end up making less. And in my opinion, if you want to eat something that has been made from scratch, maybe you should pay three times its current price – time is much more expensive than food costs.’

Indeed, the cost of making food by hand has gone up over the years.

But the competitive nature of the food industry serves to keep food costs down, foodies say. Charge more and people will head to your competitor two stalls away.

Some hawkers also say they are not in it for the money. They know the work is hard, but they would not have it any other way – they would still rather make their food from scratch than order items from a factory.

Ms Jeanette Lee, 30, a business administration graduate who currently works in the insurance business, plans to take over her parents’ chwee kueh stall at Ghim Moh market when the time comes.

She says: ‘You can’t just throw tradition away. For me, it is part of family roots. My grandmother started the stall 51 years ago and I want to see this through another generation.’

Deli Maslina

Where: Block 151 Bedok Reservoir Road, 01-1743, tel: 6743-7414

Open: 8am to 7pm, Tuesdays to Saturdays, 8am to 1pm, Sundays. Closed Mondays

Deli Maslina, a traditional Malay kueh and cake shop, started with a stall near Bedok Stadium in 1980.

It moved to a bigger shop space at the ground level of Block 151 Bedok Reservoir Road in 1988, where it is still located today.

The shop sells more than 30 types of kueh and snacks, all of which are made from scratch the traditional way.

Items include corn hoon kueh, a jelly- like dessert made with mung bean flour; ondeh ondeh, a sweet potato ball with a centre of liquid palm sugar and rolled in freshly grated coconut; badak berendam, a kueh similar to ondeh ondeh but served in coconut milk; kuih kawsi, made with flour and palm sugar and topped with grated coconut; and kueh jongkong, wrapped in banana leaves and served with coconut milk and gula melaka, which is popular during Ramadan.

The shop also sells epok epok, or curry puffs, made from scratch. The stall is run by Mr Ahmad Don, 62, and his wife, Madam Mas Kiah Mohamed Shariff, 58.

Madam Mas and her helpers make all the items sold in the cake shop, nothing there is supplied by a factory.

She says there is no short cut to making Malay kueh – the ingredients and mixture used for one type of kueh cannot be used for another.

And she makes the items from scratch to keep tradition alive.

For the epok epok, a spoonful of the potato curry mixture is placed in the centre of a piece of pastry. The pastry is folded into a semi-circular half and the edges are delicately pinched together.

Mr Ahmad’s daughter, Adibah, 26, will be taking over the business in time to come.

She has a full-time job in the marketing communications industry, but helps her mother whenever she can.