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SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Kristen Choong had accepted her family’s noodle stand in Singapore that she is likely to retire when she retires.
Now, battling a 90% drop in business due to the coronavirus pandemic, he constantly has to reassure clients that the position will survive for months to come.
“I really have to tell people that we are still here. If we didn’t, it would be tragic … We will do our best to move on,” said Choong, 45, who runs the Ji Ji Noodle House with his elderly mother. .
Last month, the government ordered people to stay home to curb the disease, abruptly halting Singapore’s tradition of eating at its more than 100 street vendor centers – sprawling food courts serving cheap regional cuisine.
This street vendor culture, which has led to the cheapest Michelin-starred meals in the world and has been featured in films like ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, is being considered for UNESCO status.
Ji Ji was started by Choong’s grandfather from a pushcart before moving to the Hong Lim market in the 1970s, when the government first built hawker centers to clean up the island. The position is listed in Singapore’s Michelin food guide.
Choong said the government granted him a three-month rental exemption during the shutdown and, like many others, began delivering food to keep the business going.
Even before the pandemic, Singapore street vendors faced a problem. Many are getting older, and their better-educated sons and daughters are avoiding tight, sweaty kitchens for office jobs.
Choong took care of his mother, Lai Yau Kiew, but said “no one wants to inherit” such a laborious job that it involves boiling and frying wontons, vegetables, meat and noodles from 5am to 10pm every day.
“My heart tells me to take it just one day at a time,” said Lai, 69, who comes to the stand every day to help her daughter.
(Report by Joseph Campbell; John Geddie Edition)
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