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SINGAPORE: For nearly six decades, 91-year-old street vendor Leong Yuet Meng had gotten up before dawn six days a week to make her old-school wonton noodles.
One of Singapore’s oldest street vendors, if not the oldest, this Cantonese chef is well known as the founder of Nam Seng Noodle House, which was located just outside the old National Library on Stamford Road.
But he has closed his only stall, in Far East Square along China Street, where he had moved 20 years ago. He is a victim of the COVID-19 crisis, with the work-from-home rule that has emptied the Central Business District.
“Business fell dramatically overnight. It was very difficult to get back to where we were before, ”he said.
“Ideally, I would like to continue … I hope to preserve my brand (Nam Seng), I built it with many difficulties.”
Mdm Leong’s store on China Street before it closed.
On the Belly Of A Nation show, street vendors like Leong share their fears and dismay during the pandemic, recounting how surviving became increasingly challenging.
IN HAND, EVEN AT HIS AGE
It was in 1962 that Leong opened her stall, financed by her late husband, in a small food court opposite the old National Library.
Her first foray into the street vendor trade had been selling chicken porridge and macaroni at a school on Queen Street, but she learned how to make mee wonton from her cousin, an amah who also sold this dish in Chinatown.
The name of the position was suggested by her mother-in-law. “Nam means Nanyang (the region that encompasses Malaya and the wider Southeast Asia), as we were doing business in Nanyang, and Seng represents a successful business,” Leong said.
Their menu included a variety of other dishes, such as chow fun, fried rice, and chicken with soy sauce.
During the withdrawal of British troops from Singapore in the late 1960s, her husband, who was working as an employee for the British, was offered the opportunity to move his family to the UK.
“I said, ‘Please don’t joke with me. Go abroad? I don’t know a single word in English. I’ll stay here, ‘”he recalled.
Back then, they sold their signature dish for 30 cents a bowl.
“I would have had wonton, noodles and char siu,” he said. “I started with 30 cents and increased it to 50 cents (and then) to 70 cents; then from a dollar … to S $ 5 today. “
Before the library was demolished, he moved to Joo Chiat and then accepted an invitation to open a stall in Far East Square, where he also sold fried rice, venison. hor fun and seafood hor fun.
Mdm Leong in action.
Although she had a small team of helpers, Leong was still heavily involved in running the stall, including getting up early in the morning to buy fresh produce at a wet market in Toa Payoh, where she lives.
Her second son, Michael Tang, would send her to Nam Seng, where she would spend the day making the wontons from scratch and taking customer orders.
“I like to be practical … A person should be able to do everything. I don’t trust the workers, ”he said.
“If you want to earn money, don’t complain about difficulties. Go home to sleep if you are worried about difficulties. “
For two decades, he witnessed life on busy China Street, but that stopped when COVID-19 hit.
Pre-Covid, the queue “went all the way,” Mdm Leong said.
At his age, he belongs to the high-risk group and since people also stay away from CBD, he decided to temporarily close the position. But the restless matriarch complained of being bored during the “breaker” period.
“I stayed home for two months,” he said. “I read the newspapers and sometimes I watched television.”
ENTER BUSINESS BEFORE ‘CIRCUIT BREAKER’
For Delonix Tan Wei Jie, 22, on the other hand, she couldn’t have chosen a more inopportune time to enter the street vendor trade.
Having enrolled in the National Environment Agency Incubation Program, he opened his fishball stand, SanDai Fishball, at Amoy Street Food Center when the number of COVID-19 cases was on the rise.
Delonix Tan Wei Jie.
“After four days of operation, the Government announced that on April 7 this circuit breaker would be in,” he lamented, calling it suay (Hokkien, unlucky).
Although she had little cooking experience, she had been helping her father make yong tau foo at a wet market in Toa Payoh, and she thought she might like the “hectic” lifestyle of street vendors.
When he started, he had a dual role: during the day, he was at his post and during the night, he helped with his family’s food business.
Given his schedule, his girlfriend helped him with his position initially.
“She knew that I was very stressed, that I was short on cash, etc., so she offered to help,” said the rookie, who acknowledged that his culinary skills needed “some time to develop.”
This was after he closed his post during the circuit breaker as he was in the CBD and realized there would be almost “zero footfall”.
After reopening in June, she saw that the lunchtime office crowd that used to crowd the food center had yet to return.
“We talked to … our clients, and they told us that most of them would be coming back next year,” he said. So, after a few months, he decided to drop everything and help his father in the wet market.
“Instead of continuing to (throw) money into this black hole, we decided to just cut it,” he said. “(Being) a street vendor… is very, very hard work, and the (profit margins are) very, very thin.
“After this experience, I don’t think I want to be a street vendor.”
Only photos of your post remain.
RETURN PROMISE
Leong also resumed business activities after the lifting of the circuit breaker measures. “When the government said we could open businesses, I did it right away, even if it was just to meet people,” he said.
However, as his clients were mostly office workers in the CBD, business was quiet. In July, he decided to close his store for good, due to dwindling crowds and leasing issues.
“When I started renting there 20 years ago, the people (building management) were nice. Who knew they would change this year and it would be difficult to talk to them? ” she said.
Since then, one of his employees has returned to China, another is working at his brother’s restaurant and the last one has stopped working.
WATCH: Old Tastes: Singapore Street Vendors Serving Traditional Asian Recipes (46:25)
At his age, Leong should retire comfortably, but he’s adamant about keeping the Nam Seng brand alive.
“I have worked for so many years. My focus and dedication these last 60 years have been for my brand. How can I bear to let it go? “she said.” We will return. “
Watch the Belly Of A Nation show here.
