Discarded Ingredients, Heartache, Confusion - Hong Lim Hawkers Scramble Amid Food Centre’s Sudden Closure

Shortly after the news of dine-in restrictions reverting to two pax once again at hawker centres, kopitiams and food courts regardless of vaccination status thanks to the ongoing KTV cluster, we’re faced with the closure of yet another food centre that has seen a new outbreak of Covid-19 cases. Hong Lim Market & Food Centre will be closed from July 17 to 31 to break the chain of transmission and for deep-cleaning. The hawker centre (which has roughly over 200 stalls including those from the wet market), along with Jurong Fishery Port, are part of a cluster involving seven infected people thus far. 8days.sg reached out to a few affected hawkers who were caught off-guard by the announcement, which came “late last night (July 16).”

Owner of Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff, 50-year-old Ray Ng, shares: “It was very sudden. We got a message [today at 1am] — I woke up and read it [later] this morning.” The hawker then took to social media to inform customers of his stall’s closure, throwing away some “$200 worth of ingredients”.

“Sudden closure of Hong Lim Market is a great shock to all of us. Ingredients will all be thrown away,” he laments in the post. “Please stay safe and always have your mask on. Keep yourself and your family safe.”

Apart from losing two weeks worth of business, Hong Lim hawkers like 30-year-old Algin Tan (left in pic), who runs new Western stall Burgrill along with his brother Milton, had to toss away ingredients that had already been prepared in anticipation of the weekend crowd. “We had already marinated meat for the weekend, as there [are more customers on weekends]. I had to throw away [about $300] of chicken, beef and salmon,” he says. “The whole rubbish bin was full.”

While the hawkers can save some of the food for themselves or give it away, “those that can’t possibly be finished” will have to be thrown away, says Algin. For example, he had 22 kg of peeled potatoes with a shelf life of “five days”. It is also presumably logistically challenging to distribute raw ingredients to other people amid scrambling to close shop at short notice.

Apart from the loss of a fortnight’s worth of income and the cost of ingredients, some Hong Lim hawkers are concerned that business would continue to be affected even after the food centre reopens post-deep-cleaning. “What really worries me is [how the] business [fares] even after the food centre reopens. We see [other closures like Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre] — surely no business after that,” muses 47-year-old Tay Khang Huat, owner of the wildly popular stall Heng Kee Curry Chicken Noodle.

Algin concurs, “Business won’t go back to normal [after reopening] as there will be some phobia, as seen from other affected hawker centres [like Bukit Merah View].”

At press time, the hawkers interviewed for this story have yet to receive news on whether they’d be serving stay-home notices (SHN) in hotels, or their residences. Khang Huat says, “Hong Lim [Market & Food Centre] has over 200 stalls, cannot be all kena stay home or quarantine.

Algin adds, “I haven’t heard anything about SHN so far. I’ve only heard hearsay from other hawkers, some were talking about quarantine, some say that we’ll have to stay at home.” He adds: “I tried calling [the Ministry of Health], but [didn’t get a reply]. We’re staying at home and reading the news online to wait for updates”.

However, all of the hawkers 8days.sg spoke to acknowledged that preventing the further spread of Covid-19 was paramount. Gerald Tang (far right in pic), towkay of Michelin Bib Gourmand stall Tai Wah Pork Noodle, reasons: “The most important thing is to stop the spread.” After discarding his ingredients for the day, the 42-year-old went to “a nearby clinic” this morning to get swabbed before going home. “I still got [my second vaccination] jab to go,” he explains.

Algin, who has also received his first dose of the vaccine, says, “The possibility of getting [Covid-19 isn’t the most worrying part]. The worry is spreading it to family or customers. I live with my sister, who has two young children.”

“I never thought that it would happen in our hawker centre. Everyone has to take serious precautions,” says Khang Huat. Adds Ray stoically, “We still have to hold on [despite the restrictions] no matter what. The whole of Singapore, we have to do our best.”

Photos: Yip Jieying, Florence Fong, Heng Kee Curry Noodle/Facebook, Tanglin Crsipy Curry Puff/Facebook