Family-run hawker stall Ah Boon Handmade Fishcake has been around at Telok Blangah Crescent Market since 1975. It’s well-loved for its fried handmade fishcakes, as well as fishballs and other fried finger food like tau kee rolls, tau kwa and ngoh hiang.

The stall is named after and run by three brothers — Teo Boon How, 65, Teo Boon Heng, 63, and Teo Boon Seng, 60. The siblings had inherited the stall from their mother, who started her own business in the ’70s after moving to Telok Blangah from a kampong.

Yesterday (Nov 16), the oldest brother, Boon How (pictured below), passed away after a two-year battle with intestinal cancer. Speaking to 8days.sg, his daughter Teo Yun Xuan, 28, reveals that his condition had worsened in recent months. “He was diagnosed two years ago, but in May this year he started to feel unwell. In July the doctor said he had less than six months left. Previously he could still eat very well, but recently he started vomiting,” she says.

Her Facebook announcement about her father’s passing had an outpouring of condolences from customers.

According to Yun Xuan, her father had already semi-retired as a hawker in 2016. “But he still went to the market to look see for around three hours. When I was younger, he would work till 12am. After his [cancer diagnosis and subsequent] operation, we let him relax and not do so much,” shares the youngest of four siblings. She has three older brothers, who are all currently working at their family stall.

The Teos also started travelling more in recent years as her father finally had time off work. “When we were young my father was working hard, so my parents didn’t have much time to travel. But for the past four or five years we have been bringing him overseas, at least once a year. We went to Hainan Island and Taiwan, and he went to China with his friends,” Yun Xuan recalls.

She sheds light on the difficulty of planning a family vacation due to their hawker business: “It was rare that we could holiday together, since we also supply fishcakes to a few market stalls and we couldn’t just close [for a prolonged period]. If my brothers wanted to go on the trip, we’d have to wait for the market to close [for cleaning] for a week once or twice a year.”

Since her father retired, Yun Xuan’s three brothers — Chuan Rong, 37, Chuan Yang, 36, and Chuan De, 32, have been running the business together with their uncles. Other than the cooked food hawker stall, the family also owns three other same-named stalls at Telok Blangah Crescent Market, where they sell their raw fishballs, handmade fishcakes and yong tau foo ingredients.

The fishcakes are made by hand at the wet market stall by Yun Xuan’s brothers. The fishballs are also made on-site by her uncle, albeit using a machine. “If you fry handmade fishballs, the shape is not so nice,” she explains. Her oldest brother is in charge of frying the snacks to be sold at their cooked food stall. “My brothers graduated from school and started helping out at the stall. My father shared the load with them, before he had his operation,” she recalls.

While his sons were helping him, Boon How also fretted about manpower issues. “Handmade stuff is not a one-man-show. My father always told me the ‘mouthfeel’ for handmade and machine-made fishcakes is very different. He thought, if we hire ‘outside’ people to work here, will they do the job properly?” she recounts.

Despite his concerns, Yun Xuan shares that her father had “never forced” his kids to take over his business. She says, “My brothers were helping out at the stall all along. It’s a natural thing to do when you see your parents getting old. My mum is a housewife who mainly does the chores at home. She didn’t go to the stall, ’cos there were four of us to take care of.”

Yun Xuan has been helping her family at the stall since she was nine, though she did not join the biz full-time. Instead, she got a job as a recruiter. “The fishcakes are too heavy for a girl to move. My brothers wake up at midnight to go to work, which I can’t do if I get married and have my own children next time,” she says.

During the Circuit Breaker earlier this year, Ah Boon Handmade Fishcake saw a slight dip in customers. Yun Xuan decided to post about the stall on popular Facebook group Hawkers United to attract more business. “Some days were good, some not so good. So I told my brother, ‘Why not post [online]?’ I just wanted people to know we have this stall at Telok Blangah,” she reasons.

She also kickstarted a delivery service every Saturday for the stall’s fried grub. She says, “If there are more orders, we can send them on other days, but the delivery fees will be higher. We’re using Grab for the deliveries to help our friends who are driving full-time, since their income was badly affected [due to Covid-19].”

Ah Boon Handmade Fishcake offers about 17 types of snacks, including its signature fried Fishcake ($1.20 each), which is available in a chilli version for the same price. There’s also wallet-friendly Nasi Lemak ($1.80) from a supplier, along with house-made Fish Balls (five for $1.50), Otah ($1.20 a stick) and Fried Tau Kee Roll ($1.20 each). There are also two “special items” on the menu, Fried Pork Chive Dumplings (five for $8) and Fried Taro Dumplings (five for $7.50).

The stall is currently closed for a bereavement period, and will reopen on Nov 24, 2020.

#01-125 Telok Blangah Crescent Market, 11 Telok Blangah Crescent, S090011. For delivery, WhatsApp the stall at http://wa.me/6584165668 or order online via https://take.sg/s/6584165668. For more stall updates, go to www.facebook.com/ahboonfishcake.

PHOTOS: AH BOON HANDMADE FISHCAKE