Gone are the good old hawker days
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Jan 14, 2012 - ST Forum
MR YEO Choon Seng's letter ('There's a heritage role for preserving flea markets'; Tuesday) also reminds one of the deteriorating quality of hawker fare.
In the 1950s and 1960s, a row of hawker stalls beside the canal at Jalan Jurong Kechil were famous for char kway teow, satay mee hoon and mee jiang kuih. The char kway teow at Zion Road and Newton Circus were also the talk of the town. Students from Raffles Institution, CHIJ and St Joseph's Institution along Bras Basah Road used to make a beeline for the Indian rojak along Waterloo Street and chendol at the old Rex Cinema after school.
Frying char kway teow is a skill acquired with years of practice. You need to ensure the right temperature and the bean sprout, water and black sauce must be added at the right time. The old satay mee hoon hawker would place his prawns and pork on a block of ice and use them only when necessary. His grandson has taken over the stall and the prawns and pork are precooked many hours before use.
The elderly hawker selling mee jiang kuih had roasted the peanuts and pulverised them using a pestle and mortar. Her mee jiang kuih tasted like the emperor's favourite dish. Today, her replacement uses peanut butter as a substitute and the characteristic flavour is gone. The present mee siam tastes different because the hawker uses mashed potato instead of the dearer mashed sweet potato.
The chendol of yore was made from fresh coconut milk squeezed using a large towel. Today, the hawker uses carton-packed coconut milk.
There is no short cut to preparing delicious and palatable food.
Heng Cho Choon
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Too bad.
Want good food, please pay more.
are you willing to pay the price of $8 for a real 'chendol'?
Such 'no short cut' good food can be found in expensive resturant.
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Originally posted by Summer hill:
Too bad.
Want good food, please pay more.
are you willing to pay the price of $8 for a real 'chendol'?
Such 'no short cut' good food can be found in expensive resturant.
Those are nice but not best. The best is no longer in the mad rush of Sg.
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a fool and his $$$$ is soon parted.franky a $8 chendol sounds like its overpriced.
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Talk about "real and natural food" !
Everything you eat from the chicken to lamb to park to beef had all been "speed grow" to feed the hungry world population.
Even your rice had been genetically modified .
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If customers have no standards, then hawkers will have no standards. Most customers are willing to eat this shit.
I have been bringing my own simple meals to work. At least I know there aren't any cheap ingredients or questionable flavourings from PRChina.
To pay for the shit others eat is like letting people spit in my face.
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talk about flavouring....
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Originally posted by alize:
If customers have no standards, then hawkers will have no standards. Most customers are willing to eat this shit.
...
Most stalls anyhow cook, also can survive.
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Originally posted by mancha:
Most stalls anyhow cook, also can survive.
agree, most are rubbish nowadays incl the "famous".
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Yes, standards in hawker food has been going down hill since I first supped on it as a child nearly 50 years ago. So the only economical way of ensuring that you get great quality and taste in hawker fare is to cook them yourselves at home. Then hawkers will fare competition to better their fare to keep patrons from taking the home cooked fare route.
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Gone are the days of $1.50 carrot cake...
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i think png kweh and shun kweh the worst.
nowhere near the original taste of the past.
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Originally posted by ^Acid^ aka s|aO^eH~:
Gone are the days of $1.50 carrot cake...
go jb and u will find them
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Originally posted by dragg:
i think png kweh and shun kweh the worst.
nowhere near the original taste of the past.
these days, even the content in the cheng tng also anyhow liao -
i know where you get the worst chicken in singapore
near sengkang mrt the store.
the worst i taste
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Originally posted by Summer hill:
i know where you get the worst chicken in singapore
near sengkang mrt the store.
the worst i taste
and becos it's only $1.50.
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not as nice as the "$10 XO chye tow kuay from Peach Garden" i bet..
AHAHAHAHAHAHHA
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Originally posted by SevenEleven:
these days, even the content in the cheng tng also anyhow liaothis country really screw up.
no heritage, no culture. only money money and and more money.
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this is the result of us wanting everything to be fast fast fast. we can no longer sit down and slowly appreciate the food we eat ): or rather i think people nowadays don't even know how to appreciate.
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Originally posted by dragg:
this country really screw up.
no heritage, no culture. only money money and and more money.
not no heritage or culture but forsaken for economics.
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Originally posted by Jacychong10:
this is the result of us wanting everything to be fast fast fast. we can no longer sit down and slowly appreciate the food we eat ): or rather i think people nowadays don't even know how to appreciate.
thats why macdonals is full of teenagers when the lunch offer kicks in
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Originally posted by Summer hill:
thats why macdonals is full of teenagers when the lunch offer kicks in
until you are old.
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Nowadays, the chinamen cook your hokkien mee and chai tow kway. They don't know shit and that's how our traditional food goes missing little by little.
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Originally posted by Summer hill:
thats why macdonals is full of teenagers when the lunch offer kicks in
I think no lunch offers, there is still plenty of teenagers :P
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i want to make a complain why is the price of drinks in coffeeshops so expensive?a packet of drinks with ice costs $1.30!the same packet of drinks bought fr supermarket or minimart only costs $0.60,this is cut throat price!fr now o i am boycotting packet drinks,at least iced coffee $1.50 ok
