The Singapore Noodles Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

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.

Christopher Tan: “I think what everyone needs to realise is that we all have a say in how the food culture of our country evolves. We all have a stake, we all have a say, and we are all culture makers. Your national food culture is not something that you should have to order in. It should be something that you stand in, you cook, you practice, and you live out. Your heritage is your anchor, your compass, and your passport from which you go and explore other places, but you hold your passport. I very much hope that the younger generations will take up home-cooking as an activity, as a hobby, not as a luxury but as a necessity…”

Christopher Tan, writer, author of The Way of Kueh, and culinary instructor shares about the importance of home-cooking, plus: *Growing-up years in the UK* *How Singaporean food culture has shifted* *Motivation behind writing The Way of Kueh* *Agak-agak* *Challenges of kueh-making* *Parallels and differences between Western pastries and desserts, and kueh* *Vegetables in Asian desserts* *Why make kueh* *Social media, mastery, and repetition* *The shift from kampungs to HDBs* *‘Authentic’ and ‘traditional’*

Christopher Tan: @thewayofkueh 

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Desmond Shen: “We basically tried not to throw anything away, and I think one of the steps to do that is to name the thing by its part, instead of just calling it ‘waste’. If you are trimming carrots, you take away the carrot head, end, and peel – and you call that that. You don’t call it ‘trim’, you just call it ‘carrot peel’. What are we going to do with the carrot peel? What are we going to do with the carrot tops? What are we going to do with the end bits of the carrot… Especially with meat, there are so many parts that you throw away – in a chicken, you have the cockscomb, the windpipe. Once you start calling it ‘waste’, you tend to not regard it.”

Desmond Shen, chef and founder of Tiffin Bicycle Club and Alter Native, shares about his food influences growing up, plus: *Decision to be a chef* *His interest in Asian flavours* *Creative process of pushing Singaporean flavours forward* *The importance of eating out and embracing kitchen failures* *Motivation behind starting Tiffin* *Reducing plastic and food waste* *His vegetarian menu* *Favourite technique for making vegetables delicious* *Challenges and considerations of serving food in a tiffin* *The Tiffin experience* *His upcoming project, Alter Native*

Desmond Shen: @tiffin.bicycle.club

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Sheere Ng: “Our understanding of inmates is they are either repentant or incorrigible. It’s black and white. But I think that the masak shows them to be abit more multifaceted, showing them to be loyal but ill-disciplined, angry but funny as well. I learnt something from trying to understand masak, and I simply wanted to tell that story…”

Sheere Ng, author of When Cooking Was A Crime and co-founder of In Plain Words shares about the twists and turns in her career, plus: *How her love for food began* *Her journey into food writing* *Her experience as a food editor of Makansutra* *Working in the hospitality industry* *Where she got the idea for writing about prison food culture* *Why inmates cook in prison* *Food that Singaporean inmates were cooking in prison* *How writing the book helped her understand inmates better* *How she decided on food writing* *The importance of satisfying her curiosities and doing food research* *Challenges as a food researcher* *The importance of bilingualism* *What is Singaporean food*

Sheere Ng’s book: https://inplainwords.sg/when-cooking-was-a-crime/

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Rebecca Koh: “Asian ferments used to be passed down by the word of mouth – from grandma to the mother, and from the mother to the daughters. If one generation decides, “I do not want to learn it”, then that's it… When I wanted to learn how to make rice wine, my maternal grandma had already passed on, so there's no way I could ask. I had to call my aunt and ask, “Is there anyone in Singapore you know who knows how to do it?”. And she said, “No, not in Singapore, but in Malaysia, maybe I can find out from you.” So that's why in Singapore, it is literally like a vanishing art. You can hardly find someone who can really teach you how to do it properly, step-by-step.”

Rebecca Koh of Midnight Fermentary and Midnight Food Co., shares how fermentation helped her cope with insomnia, plus: *Different colours of glutinous rice wine* *Difference between red yeast rice and white wine cakes* *Process of making glutinous rice wine* *Superstitions/ science of fermentation* *Home-brewing shops in Singapore* *Fermentation fridges and storing wine under the bed* *Enjoying glutinous rice wine and lees* *The value of fermenting your own food* *What’s within the reach of a home fermenter* *Why there are chemicals in commercial ferments* *Why is there a lack of documentation for Asian ferments* *Where should a beginner start*

Rebecca Koh: @midnightfermentary @midnightfoodco

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Singapore Noodles newsletter: http://sgpnoodles.substack.com/

I reflect on 2 years of Singapore Noodles, answer your questions and share about my plans for the platform in 2021, plus: *How I decide on guests to feature on the podcast* *Behind-the-scenes of the podcast* *How I stay inspired in the kitchen* *How being married improved my cooking* *My upcoming cookbook* *The Singapore Noodles Membership*

Singapore Noodles: http://sgpnoodles.com/ @sgpnoodles

Singapore Noodles newsletter: http://sgpnoodles.substack.com/

Gladys Foo: “When we made love letters pre-pandemic, we all will go over to my mom’s place to help out. I come from a family of six siblings, so we have everybody in the different areas. I am in charge of rolling it, my elder sis is in charge of removing the love letters from the mould to pass it to me, one of my sis is in charge of monitoring it, my second sis is in charge of scooping it. My brother is the firewatcher to ensure that the fire is consistent… My siblings and I, we have a very special bond because we grew up with very little, and so the bonding is there. The sacrifice that all my siblings made for one other – we really appreciate it… That’s why we have a lot of these family activities. It’s that family closeness that brings everyone together, and so does the cooking.”

Gladys Foo, founder of Kuehdys Foo, shares about her kueh-making business started, plus: *Her growing up years* *Love letters, nian gao, and yibua* *Factors contributing to the slow death of traditional kueh-making* *Why eating kueh is typically seen as an ‘old person thing’*

*The importance of homecooking and exposing children to traditional food* *COVID and the resurgence of heritage food and other upsides* *The communal aspect of kueh-making* *Origins of Hainanese cuisine* *Her family’s version of roast pork belly* *Chicken poop kueh and art buah*

Gladys Foo: @kuehdysfoo

Singapore Noodles: http://sgpnoodles.com/ @sgpnoodles

Singapore Noodles newsletter: http://sgpnoodles.substack.com/

Shen Tan: “Passion doesn’t feed people – it doesn’t pay your CPF, it doesn’t pay your mortgage, it doesn’t pay for medical insurance. Singaporeans who say we are losing our hawker heritage, are, on the other hand, complaining on socials that ‘standards drop, so expensive, so little’. They can count, ‘Only got three prawns, only got two pieces of pork ribs.’ You have to ask yourself why? It is not the hawkers’ job to feed you guys for very little money. I was asked a question recently: How do Singapore’s hawkers put out the food at such low prices? It’s because they are subsidizing with their salaries!”

Shen Tan, hawker, chef, and founder of OG Lemak & Ownself Make Chef, shares about her journey of transitioning from the corporate world to hawker life, plus: *Stereotypes and expectations of hawkers* *The baggage of family recipes and why ‘old’ is not necessarily better* *Nasi lemak and the twice-steaming method* *Her approach to healthful eating* *Evolution of hawker food* *Innovation in the heritage food space* *Reasons why heritage dishes vanish* *How hawker profit margins are stifling the growth of hawker culture* *Social media and hawkers* *Advice to aspiring hawkers* *Cloud kitchens* *Argument for embracing local vegetables* *How we can encourage hawker food to be more nutrient dense and healthy*

Shen Tan: https://www.oglemak.com/ https://ownselfmakechef.com/ @chefshentan

Singapore Noodles: http://sgpnoodles.com/ @sgpnoodles

Singapore Noodles newsletter: http://sgpnoodles.substack.com/

Marcus Leow: “If there ever is a lao po bing (wife biscuit) in a more modern flavour, I honestly don’t think that’s bastardizing a recipe. I would say that that’s a way of keeping up with times and moving forward, but at the same time, reminding us of our roots… Like with kueh, you have so many flavours nowadays but the ones that get sold out are the traditional flavours – like regular kueh salat but done very well. Even for ang ku kueh or bingkah ubi, the original flavours are still the best. So even though there is a lot of modernizing of flavours, as long as it is part of the conversation, we are still going on the right track.”

Marcus Leow, head of product development at Naked Finn, shares about his Peranakan heritage, plus: *Kueh-making vs pastry* *Using vegetables in kueh* *The journey towards embracing his heritage* *Buah keluak and belimbing* *Applying techniques to keep heritage dishes and snacks alive* *Learning about new heritage ingredients* *His hopes for Singaporean food* *Favourite eats in Singapore*

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Singapore Noodles newsletter: http://sgpnoodles.substack.com/