New Beginnings

So, I am back to an office job with regular working hours and weekends off! Woohoo! Which means I have more time to cook for my friends and family, and explore the various hawker gems our sunny isle has to offer. Having been on both sides of the fence, a hawker (food business owner) as well as a consumer, I'd like to think I'll provide an unique perspective on the food scene in Singapore.

Today, I had lunch at Bedok Central Hawker Centre, which is located next to the Bedok Central Bus Exchange. I had to do some banking and decided to have my lunch there instead of my usual home cooked fare. I did the usual walk-about around the hawker centre and decided on the Yu Kee Duck Rice set with an extra order of Char Siu (because I do need my meat). It was very reasonably priced at $3.80 with duck, rice, char siu slices, braised egg (half) and tau kwa. I had thought it would cost more especially since I had asked for an extra order of Char Siu, but the extra Char Siu only cost me $1.

However, when I got my plate of food, I realised why it costs so little. There was very little meat protein to be had. And this brings me to the question I asked the twitter community not so long ago, would you pay more to get decent portions of meat or would you be happy with the set meal/hawker portions?

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about how little meat there was because I UNDERSTAND how difficult it is for the hawkers to put together a plate of food, sell it for $3 and under AND still make a decent living. Commodity prices, labour costs and utilities costs are rising and the average hawker is being squeezed from both ends. He has a price ceiling (i.e. he can't charge more with consumers kao pei-ing) and his costs are going up all the time. He is hard pressed to make a living to support himself and his family.

So I wonder, are we Singaporeans spoilt and unrealistic in our expectations for hawker food and how much it costs. Are we happy with the general standard of hawker food? Tommy Koh lamented recently in the Straits Times on the falling standards of Hawker Food. Why is this so? Given that nostalgia makes a certain dish taste better in the good 'ole days, I think Prof Koh has a point. That wanton mee just doesn't seem to taste as good anymore because the Hawkers are cutting corners, using lesser ingredients in order to save money and time.

What can we do to preserve our culinary heritage?