#19 | Let's Save The Ordinary Everyday Hawkers
Hawkers who are off the digital grid receive some Instagram boost from millennials. 📱😄
Hawkers who have not gone digital came into the spotlight earlier this week.
After weeks of plummeting sales, food wastage, some tears and a wave of eerie silence in hawker centres, some Instagram-loving and #hashtag-spewing millennials have come to rescue - thumbing and tapping their way through the island to feature ordinary, mom and pop hawker stalls.
These hawkers are lesser-known ones who have not been covered by the media and plastered with food “awards”. They are the ones that you pass by without throwing more than a glance after all these years.
This comes as more have been hunkering down at home during the semi-circuit breaker/phase 2 of heightened alert. Bravo to these foodies who have taken on the mantle to spread the word about these offline and obscure hawkers. #savefnbsg
The most comprehensive account of the lot (yet), @Wheretodapao chronicles the heartfelt personal stories of the elderly hawkers, their signature dishes and current business situation.
Well, nothing that warms the cockles of my heart more than reading about how these uncles/aunties started cooking (some were cooking instructors! Some picked up the trade at an early age), the lengths they go preparing food each day, the notoriously long hours involved.
Some choose to stay open as they don’t want to disappoint their elderly customers. I have walked past some of these stalls in Chinatown Smith Street food centre a couple of times, and missed out on these colourful stories behind these hawkers. The posts also share how the 3 sisters, who run the site, banter with the hawkers. After some cajoling, they open up their life stories to them. And oh, the IG account also has great food photos!
Details on the featured stalls are sparse - a basic rundown of the 5 W-Hs for most of the posts. Though a few of the posts have more details on how the hawkers are struggling to catch up with the digital wave.
They uncovered gems like Aunty Oats Pancakes in Boon Keng Food Centre (she sells min jiang kueh sans oats) and Ah Meng at Hong Lim food centre that rolls out sweet potato ondeh ondeh, instead of the usual pandan ones.
Makansutra founder KF Seetoh has been doing more "walkabouts” to “flush out” more hawkers who are off the delivery platform grid in coffee shops and hawker centres. For his debut video in this news series, he paid a visit to Golden Mile Hawker Centre and tar pau-ed bar chor mee (with a Nonya-Indonesian touch), prawn noodles and Kopi c, while striking up cheerful conversations with the hawkers.
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