Ex-Limousine Taxi Driver Becomes Hokkien Mee & Pao Fan Hawker
“When Covid-19 came, tourists were gone. Job gone too,” says the new hawker who now works with his wife.
“When Covid-19 came, tourists were gone. Job gone too,” says the new hawker who now works with his wife.
Amid the pandemic, there’s been no shortage of pivots and side gigs in the F&B world. New hawker stall Chef Goo, which serves Hokkien mee and pao fan, is yet another product of the times. It opened on May 18 at Alexandra Village Food Centre, more than a year after its 49-year-old owner, Johnson Goo, called it quits as a limousine taxi driver.
“The effect [from the pandemic] was immediate,” he says. “When Covid-19 came, tourists were gone. Job gone too.” He estimates that around 80 percent of his driver’s earnings came from transporting “big groups of tourists” in his seven-seater Toyota Vellfire. The remaining 20 per cent came from corporate clients, which also dried up last year. By February 2020, he wasn’t able to make any money doing the job he’d done since 2015.
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“By March, I moved on,” Johnson says. “I turned to Grab – I’ll always remember April 7, 2020 (the first day of the Circuit Breaker) as it was the day I signed a one-year contract for my vehicle!” he adds with a laugh.
“But I didn’t have a choice. I was thinking about my kid, who was in Primary Two. Luckily, I managed to find work [ferrying other part-timers] to dormitories,” he says. These mega-dormitories, which housed thousands of migrant workers in sprawling complexes, saw a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases last year. Apart from helping to manage dormitory residents, he ferried other part-time workers to-and-from dorms as part of his role. “There were a lot of other drivers that were hired by MOM (the Ministry of Manpower). It saved a lot of us, as things were bad even for the remaining drivers [out there],” he adds.
Johnson stuck with that job until April this year, he says, only taking time off to join the Hawkers’ Development Programme in October 2020. “It was actually my plan [to become a hawker after quitting as limo taxi driver], but the programme was put on hold during [the Circuit Breaker],” he explains.
“I’m an Internet-taught chef,” he shares cheerily. “I like to eat Hokkien mee, so I wanted to sell a version of Hokkien mee that can at least make 80 percent of Singaporeans happy”. As for why he’s decided to sell pao fan alongside that, he’s got two reasons. “Pao fan gained popularity since last year, so there’s a strong demand. And I thought it’d be a waste not to use my stock for something else - nowadays, just focusing on one dish isn’t enough,” he explains.
He spent his eight-week apprenticeship working on his wok skills at Changi Village Fried Hokkien Mee in Marsiling Mall Hawker Centre. “I was quite grateful for that, as I’d never cooked [on such a large scale] before. It was very useful once I started my own place,” he says.
Thereafter, he sank around $15K into equipment and branding, which includes a cutesy mascot. “I can’t smile [as nicely]. I need someone else to smile for me, that’s why I chose a character [that] looks a bit cuter,” he shares with a laugh.
The hawker mans the stall daily with his 36-year-old wife, Chen Xin (she used to be a homemaker). “I’m fortunate to have her around to help with packing and serving customers, especially since I’m still getting used to being a hawker,” he says.
Business has been okay in the weeks since they’ve opened – the stall launched at the start of Phase 2 Heightened Alert, which meant dining-in wasn’t allowed. But today, sales have actually dropped “around 20 per cent” compared to in his opening weeks, Johnson says. “We thought it might be due to the Bukit Merah cluster nearby.”
While he’s earning enough “to cover expenses, and pay [his] wife’s salary”, he’s yet to make anything for himself – even with a constant stream of customers during 8days.sg’s visit one weekday evening.
“I don’t think dining in for two-pax or five-pax will matter much for our business. It’s about [the fact that] most people are now working from home,” he explains, gesturing to nearby industrial and office buildings. “When they are back [in the office], then we will have a much better crowd.”
Johnson whips up Hokkien mee and fried rice in two separate woks. Meanwhile, his wife arranges the components for the pao fan in a bowl for him to ladle boiling hot prawn-and-pork broth into.
Both dishes are made with different stock bases: the pao fan with pork bones, boiled “for at least 12 hours, to extract the gelatin”, along with a prawn-head and clam broth for the noodles that’s simmered for a shorter two-and-a-half hours.
There’s also fried rice, a suggestion from one of his customers. “He said he was sian (bored) of noodles, so I used the rice for the pao fan to make some fried rice. The feedback was good, so we kept it,” he explains.
The Red Sea Prawns refer to farmed, quick-frozen prawns imported from Saudi Arabia. You get two large ones with each order (along with sotong and pork belly), and they’re also the base of the hawker’s prawn stock. The crustaceans are fresh enough and not mushy like frozen prawns can be. Pity they’re overcooked.
The sauce-soaked noodles, on the other hand, are a little undercooked – there’s an alkaline whiff and the texture is a bit stiff.
We recommend mixing in the accompanying belacan liberally – it’s on the spicier side, thanks to a piquant mix of dried, regular and bird’s eye chillies, candlenut and onions – along with a spritz of lime to brighten everything up.
We prefer the pao fan. It comes with plenty of fixings – fried shallots, fried egg floss and like the Hokkien mee, big chunks of crispy pork lard. You get two prawns, squid and slivers of pork belly with your bowl. The soup’s more brown than orangey-red, which is reflected in the broth’s flavour profile – it’s a little more pork than prawn-forward, though still sweet and very slurpable.
The Thai jasmine rice isn’t deep-fried like at some pao fan stalls - instead, it’s first boiled in the stall’s prawn-and-pork broth to reinforce the umami fragrance of the stock, before being thrown into the pot of soup to finish upon order.
The hawker cooks crab meat fried rice in memory of many a plate of fried rice at Chen Fu Ji Fried Rice Restaurant, which costs $25 and comes with a generous heap of shredded crab.
At Chef Goo, you’re getting large chunks of canned crab meat instead, flash-fried in the wok and added as a finishing touch. He uses the same rice as the stock-soaked pao fan in this dish, though once it’s fried, you can’t really taste much of that seafood stock. The fried rice is a little under seasoned and could do with more wok hei.
Chef Goo may specialise in Hokkien mee, but it’s the pao fan here that we really like.
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