Taxi-driver became hawker for ‘job security’

SINGAPORE – After more than 20 years as a taxi driver, Desmond Koh decided that he needed more “job security” for the family. So, he and his wife, who had been working in a desk-bound job for over 30 years, decided to take a leap of faith and became hawkers selling 25 different variations of fried rice.

The couple, who have two children aged 12 and 18, opened their hawker stall Fried Rice UNeed in September last year.

Two weeks after opening the stall, Mdm Elena Pang, 50, was ready to call it quits. In part, because she still holds her day job as a supply chain management manager at a Japanese company here.

The early days setting up the fried rice stall was labour-intensive and saw the couple working until 2am every night. They struggled to resolve issues resulting from their lack of experience, such as learning to cook rice in bulk.

“The first two weeks were really bonkers,” said Mdm Pang. “It’s a total mindset shift. You never expect how tough it is to be hawker.”

Several times, she had questioned herself: “Is this worth it?”

Her husband had been a taxi driver for over 20 years. Koh, 51, said: “What we (were seeing) from all the news was that retrenchment was high so we started to look for a plan B.”

Koh had worked as a restaurant manager before becoming a cabbie, so the couple decided to go into the food and beverage industry – but without a clue what to sell.

The idea for their stall, Fried Rice Uneed, came about by chance when Koh cooked fried rice for his father-in-law one day, who noted that it was “not bad” and suggested that they sell it.

Koh said he spent two years developing 25 fried rice recipes. Some flavours include luncheon meat egg fried rice, black pepper seafood fried rice, olive and tau kwa fried rice and sambal chili roast pork rice.

“We experimented almost every weekend – my children are scared of fried rice now, they got a phobia!” joked Koh.

So far, the couple has invested S$40,000 in the Golden Mile Food Centre stall, of which a quarter was spent on two “semi-automatic fried rice machines” that help fry each batch of rice to the same standard each time.

Some of their funds came from the Tiger Street Food Support Fund, of which Koh is a recipient. The fund was launched in September last year and saw 25 new or future hawkers receiving a S$10,000 grant each.

Koh is among 15 fund recipients who are serving up their signature dishes at the Tiger Street Food Festival on Friday (Sep 22). Proceeds from the festival will go to the next edition of the Tiger Street Food Support Fund.

Koh said that nothing beats the sense achievement from seeing a customer clean out a plate of their rice. “Very shiok,” Koh quipped.

Fried Rice UNeed is at #01-86, 505 Beach Road, Golden Mile Food Centre.

The Tiger Street Food Festival will be from 5pm - 10.30pm on Sept 22 at Tan Quee Lan Street. More information is available at http://tigerbeer.com.sg/streetfood/.