The lives of handsome hawkers: Part 2

SINGAPORE — Five of Singapore’s best-looking male hawkers tell us how being a hawker has affected their spending power, family life, and yes, their romantic prospects. Here’s the second part. TOGGLE.SG

THE HONOURS GRAD: ABDHUS SALAM, ABDHUS SALAM ROJAK

Abdhus Salam, 29, is an Honours grad who’s living his dream of selling Indian rojak. You could say it’s his calling; his father has been making rojak by hand for decades, naming his hawker stall Abdhus Salam Rojak when Abdhus was just a little boy. When his father experienced health problems, Abdhus left his job as an assistant engineer to take over the stall. In fact, he went beyond and opened Ministry of Rojak, an expansion of Ahdhus Salam Rojak. Married with one child and another one on way, Abdhus plans to continue the journey his father started.

Q: You left your job as an assistant engineer to take over your father’s rojak business. Was it a hard decision?

A: My father suddenly had chest pain, a slight heart problem, and after that he wasn’t as active as before. I felt something then: My father worked so hard to build this rojak business. Without fail he’d start prepping at 3am and come out at 11pm. We had the King of Kings title when we won the City Excellence Hawker Award by City Gas. All these scenarios were running through my head. I was thinking what if something happens and my father is not there? What is going to happen to Abdhus Salam Rojak? All the effort would be wasted. That’s when I was inspired to take over and keep this business going, expand it and make it a franchise. To make it an international brand -- that’s my dream.

Q: Was everyone supportive of your jump into the hawker business?

A: There were a few family members who said, “Oh you studied so much, you have a degree, you got Honours, and you want to be a hawker. You’re going back to your father’s past. Your father worked so hard for you to not be like that.” But for me I am thinking far; it can be hard now but in the future once you stabilise and expand, you can have an even better life than an ordinary job.

Q: Any advice for girls who want to date or marry a hawker?

A: The girls need to be prepared to have the hawker perfume. Your outward appearance would be a bit messy. Being a hawker, if your business is really good that day then instead of closing at 10 PM you can close at 7 PM, so you can suddenly plan something last minute. But the guy won’t have time to go home and freshen up, put on cologne. The guy is tired, he went through a lot of practical work that day. One look and you can see. The hair will be messy. Some of the girls will be thinking, “My fiancé has food stains on his shirt.” But you have to accept it because the nature of the hawker business is like that. You want to go to a movie but be prepared for that untidy look.

Another thing is sometimes the guy will be trying to visualise the future. Every hawker wants to expand -- that’s the next level. The girl must be able to discuss the planning stage because it’s all for the future.

Q: Would you want your kids to take over the business in the future?

A: I would really encourage my children to take over one day, but I won’t force them to. I will show them the structure of the business but it must come naturally.

Q: Does having good looks make a difference for your business?

A: Most of it is based on the food -- the taste and quality. But in terms of publicity having good looks can make a difference. People like good looking chefs.

(Abdhus Salam Rojak is located at Ayer Rajah Hawker Centre, 503 W Coast Dr, Singapore 120503. Ministry of Rojak by Abdhus Salam Rojak is located at White Sands Shopping Centre, 1 Pasir Ris Central Street 3, Singapore 518457)

HAWKER TURNED RESTAURATEUR: MICAH JARROD LIM, MICASA KITCHEN & BAR

Grilled octopus served with lemon confit, pickled daikon and mustard dressing, seafood paella, roasted pork cheek with pickles and mustard dressing. Not something you would expect from a hawker stall, but at 26-year-old Micah Jarrod Lim’s stall-turned-restaurant, MiCasa, these were all part of the menu.

Prior to opening MiCasa (now called MiCasa Kitchen & Bar), Micah attended culinary school in Paris and had roughly 10 years of professional and part-time cooking experience under his belt. At the restaurant, you might spy the 1.83m chef preparing wholesome Spanish food inspired by his travels to Barcelona.

Q: When did you become interested in cooking?

A: It started at age 14. My grandma looked after me and she introduced me to cooking. A few of my family members were involved in a steamboat restaurant. I slowly progressed from waiter to dishwasher before working in one of the central kitchens, peeling onions and squeezing 40 kg bags of limes, wearing rubber gloves to prevent acid burns.

Q: Is there anything you and your parents do to make your stall stand out?

A: My parents and I run Mi Casa like a family business. We interact with our customers. We sit them down and talk to them, put a 90 cent IKEA flower on the table. We like to embarrass the first dates. There was this student couple - you could tell it was a first date. We brought out the fake potted plant and some lights and said, “This is for your date.” The girl said, “We’re not on a date.” And the guy was like “…Crap.”

Q: How has your career as a hawker affected your love life?

A: I can easily say my love life, my personal life, is neck deep in cow crap. I just went on holiday overseas and couldn’t sleep most of the time because I left a lot of undone work. I was supposed to enjoy myself. I was in a hot spring bath, it was 4 degrees out, and it started snowing on the mountainside. I looked at it, thought, “That’s pretty… Oh I gotta call my guy later on.”

Q: You look like you really know what you are doing now, but what was it like in the beginning for you?

A: Oh man, you know sometimes you plan for things? I did a lot of mock up cooking at home to test my recipes but when I eventually cut and paste in the store, I was serving uncooked rice. It was still chalky, stuck between the teeth. But people were still buying it. I had to develop a way to properly cook the rice and it was only 11 months later that I figured out how to do that.

Q: Do you think having good looks is an advantage in the hawker business?

A: In the hawker centre you look incredibly unattractive. You’re sweaty, your hair’s messy. But it’s not so much the physical appeal that brings people to my place. They’re coming back for the feeling I give them - and that feeling is me taking care of them. When a repeat customer says, “I don’t know what to order. You just cook what you want,” they have this reassurance that I’m not going to cheat their money.

Q: What is it about food and cooking that makes you willing to sacrifice so much for it?

A: Everyone has their safe haven. Some do retail therapy, some go boxing, some get hookers, I cook. When I cook, it’s about me, the product, and the person consuming it. There’s absolutely no words to describe the feeling of having someone thank you for the food, the effort, the sweat, the time, the everything.

(Micasa Kitchen & Bar, Micah’s new restaurant, is located at 102C Jalan Jurong Kechil, Singapore 598602.)

The original story first appeared in http://www.toggle.sg