SG's Next-Gen Hawkers

These 12 young hawkers didn’t need the inaugural Michelin Guide Singapore to make preserving and updating local food heritage their mission. Check out their stalls, stat!

- Meryl Koh

Habib’s Rojak

When Habib was born, his father opened an Indian rojak (mixed salad) stall at Ayer Rajah Food Centre and named it after his second son. In a way, this has paved the path for Habib. The 28-year old was about to sit for his private O-level examinations when shortage of manpower at the stall led him to stop his education and help his father out instead.

“I didn’t really want to then, but I felt I had to,” shares Habib. After a few weeks of learning the ropes from his father, he’s now learnt the daily routine of running the stall.

The morning starts with him preparing the different flour mixes – egg, coconut, potato – and getting fresh produce like prawns from the wet market in the compound where his stall is located. Habib sells his wares from 11 a.m. to midnight, and popular items include vadai (fried cutlets), potato and coconut fritters. He would like his son to take over the business one day. “To me, doing this is sustainable. After all, I grew up on a hawker’s income,” he says. (503 West Coast Dr, Ayer Rajah Food Centre, Stall 68, 120503)

Truly Test Kitchen Curry Rice

Few would imagine the lanky, shaggy- haired guy working the curry rice stall at an industrial-building canteen as having been a sharp-suited foreign exchange trader working “short and sweet” hours at a local bank. “The physicality of the hawker trade really cannot be underestimated,” says 30-year-old Joel Chia candidly. “I run 10 to 30 kilometres a day. Every single day. But it’s a different game as a hawker.”