When 8days.sg visited hawker stall Chick N’ Treat at Chomp Chomp Food Centre on a Tuesday evening, its owner Priscilla Koh, 31, was seen standing in front of her stall, wearing a despondent look on her face. Situated between three vacant booths, an unusual sight in the popular supper hotspot, her hawker stall offers fried chicken (the ‘chicks’) and desserts (the ‘treats’). 

“I shed 26kg for this,” laughs the pretty hawker, who used to weigh 76kg. With her light make-up and streaks of emerald hair highlights, it’s easy to mistake her for a pop-punk singer.

Before opening her stall in March this year, she went on a weight loss regimen because she wanted to gain more stamina to keep up with her gruelling workload. She explained: ”It’s great that I look nice in photos now, but all I wanted was to be healthier and have the endurance to work as a hawker.” 

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Priscilla lost 26kg over 10 months through “limiting calories to one meal a day, and going for light exercise”. It is risky for her to overexert as she has had a minor ventricular septal defect since birth, a heart condition where there is a hole in the organ’s septum.

Her medical condition often causes her to pant and feel tired easily. Having more stamina from losing weight, she explains, has helped her to manage her business better. “Even with my condition, I don’t think it will impede my cooking or dampen my passion for hawking,” she told 8days.sg.

Slow biz at Chomp Chomp

Unfortunately for Priscilla, business has been slow at her stall despite being located in a very popular hawker centre. Prior to our visit, she had only made three sales in the first three hours of opening her stall. “I expected better because it’s Chomp Chomp,” she shrugged. She chose to open at Chomp Chomp instead of a more obscure food centre with lower rent, as it was nearer to her home. 

On average, she sells around 10 orders of fried chicken sets, though the orders can jump to 20 on better days. “[Other hawkers in Chomp Chomp[ are saying that the crowds have been missing since after Covid-19 happened,” she shared. “It’s like no one comes here anymore.”

Amongst the well-loved barbecued wings and grilled seafood at Chomp Chomp, Priscilla’s American-style fried chicken is a welcomed addition. Each piece of fowl is marinated over eight hours with five types of spices (which she remains tight-lipped about) before it is coated in a dry batter comprising spice-blended wheat flour, and fried to order.

Working since 19

Priscilla's foray into the hawker industry was preceded by a few interesting side hustles. She has worked as an automotive spare parts seller, bank teller and credit card salesperson, to list a few. On why she has worked in so many different industries including F&B, she said: “I like to try new things and I want to gain new experiences.

One of her notable jobs is overseeing the driverless SBS Transit trains along the Downtown Line. “It’s not a dull job at all. In fact it’s pretty meaningful, but it’s also pretty routine-centric,” explained Priscilla, who started working when she was 19. 

Wanting to be her own boss, she decided to leave the transport industry in 2021 after two years with the company. Priscilla recalled: “My supervisor wanted me to stay, but he understood how important it was to chase our dreams and was supportive in the end.” 

Learning from rookie mistakes

After leaving her salaried job, she started a home-based business selling spice mixes, with recipes that she “guess-timated” by researching YouTube videos.

But her spice-mixing biz failed to take off. Priscilla later took up her friend’s offer to work in a bar as a kitchen cook and test out her spice mix with the drinking crowd. This went on for close to a year and gave her the culinary experience she needed to set up her own hawker stall.

Being an entrepreneur has been an eye-opening learning experience for Priscilla, as she candidly admits that she lacks business acumen and is “bad at marketing.” 

What she finds most regrettable is not signing up for NEA’s hawker incubation programme, which has rental subsidies and support to help newbies kickstart their hawker ambitions, as she did not know the programme existed.

Priscilla now pays a monthly rental of $3,100, and spent around $10,000 to set up shop. She confessed: “I’m not sure if an appeal [to join the programme] works at this point, but the rental is killing me.”

She also sells desserts

The bubbly hawker added dessert options to go with her chicken-centric menu. “There aren’t a lot of dessert options at Chomp Chomp,” she explained. The selection, however, is pretty random. Some days there are cakes, and other days there are classic tong shui like peach gum dessert with bird’s nest, red date osmanthus jelly and mango sago pomelo. “It’s not just a hawker stall, it’s a diner in a hawker stall,” chortles Priscilla.

The menu 

For the ‘chick’ part of the menu, there are six mains offered: Whole fried spring chicken, fried chicken tenders, chicken cutlet, mid-wings, two-piece fried chicken and three-piece fried chicken. Each main comes with a sauce and a side. 

Customers can choose from six sides like fries, mashed potatoes, garlic butter rice, coleslaw, waffles and cheesy truffle mash. There are also six sauces including honey mustard, sweet Thai chilli, wasabi mayo, creamy onion, a smoky ‘secret sauce’ and a fiery dip called spicy RARA. The latter three are Priscilla’s own recipes made in-house.

Springtime Crisp, $13 

Pretty straightforward old-school western grub featuring an entire spring chicken. The chook is coated once in dry batter and fried immediately to give it beautifully crisp skin. The meat is pretty tasty and tender too. 

Tasty Tenders, four for $7, six for $10 (8 DAYS Pick!)

Moist, succulent white meat encased in a peppery, crispy crust. What really stands out is the extra coat of dry batter — crushed cereal flakes — which gives it extra crunch. Priscilla also sprinkles an additional serving of cajun spice mix, her own blend, for that smoky, peppery kick. Yummy. 

We recommend dipping these tender strips into the creamy onion sauce for a delish snack.

House-made sauces 

Three sauces are concocted in-house: secret sauce (left), creamy onion (middle), and spicy RARA (right). Priscilla, however, remains secretive about what goes into her blends. The secret sauce is slightly tart, smoky and carries a hint of cajun spice. Nothing to shout about though.

Comprising thinly-minced onions, the tasty creamy onion dip is a sweet, buttery but sloppy dip that’s reminiscent of an alfredo sauce.

With hints of hot sauce, the spicy RARA, our favourite of the three, is a savoury, fiery dip that goes great with fried chook. 

Chick-A-Crisp, $7 (8 DAYS Pick!) 

Priscilla preps the boneless chicken leg the same way as her other mains. Fried to golden brown, the chook boasts a crunchy coat cradling juicy white meat. It’s pretty rich and can get jelak. Worth the calories, though. 

Wing-A-Ling, $8.50 

These eight small chicken mid-wings are a little underwhelming for their price. While flavourful, we’d prefer having our money’s worth with a larger serving. Otherwise, skip.

Garlic Butter Rice, $2.50

Buttery and garlicky, no-frills steamed pearl rice. Well-seasoned and full-bodied. Nice with a side of crispy fried chicken.

Mashed Potato, $2.50 (8 DAYS Pick!) 

The house-made Holland potato mash is velvety and flavourful. The addition of Cajun spices adds a mildly spicy kick to the mashed spuds, which is then doused in yummy demi-glace gravy.

Cheesy Truffle Mash, $4.50

The same spuds but with decadent parmesan cheese and earthy truffle-infused olive oil folded into the mixture. Worth the elevated price tag.

Fries, $2.50

Classic shoestring fries drizzled with Cajun spice mix. Slightly smoky, spicy and more sophisticated than your typical hawker Western food fries.

Waffle, $2.50 

What is fried chicken without waffles, the American diner classic combo? Though the waffle served here is not as fluffy as we had hoped for, it is still pretty soulful. “I’m looking to serve thicker waffles when things pick up here,” said Priscilla, who used a thin waffle press to manage her costs. But she has recently switched to offering Belgian waffles ($3.50 a piece), and has taken the American diner-style waffle off her menu. 

Peach Gum with Snow Bird’s Nest, $6

An interesting and supposedly nourishing dessert soup that’s first boiled with all the goodies — peach gum (also known as peach tree resin), snow bird’s nest, snow lotus, and white fungus — before it’s chilled and served in petite cups. 

The jelly-like peach gum,which comes as hard pellets and are notoriously difficult to cook down, adds a nice chewiness to the dessert soup. It’s also not too sweet. But for its price, the portion could be a lot more generous.

Mango Pomelo Sago, $5

A quintessential Hong Kong cha chan teng dessert with sweet chunks of Thai mangoes, mango purée, sago and coconut milk is also served here. We like that it’s luscious, sweet and smooth, but like the peach gum dessert, it’s also served in a way-too-small cup that doesn’t justify its $5 price. 

Bottomline

Amidst the hawker stalls selling local delights, Chick N’ Treat is a refreshing addition to Chomp Chomp Food Centre. Priscilla’s stall is open till midnight, making this a good dinner or supper option.

Despite its odd mish-mash menu of Western food and Chinese desserts, it’s a pity that this shop is relatively underrated. The chook here is well-marinated and seasoned with spices — the cereal flake-crusted chicken tenders and boneless chicken leg are must-trys.

Also worth indulging are the tasty carbs like aromatic garlic butter rice, spice-infused mashed potatoes and cheesy truffle mash. 

Chick N’ Treat is at 20 Kensington Park Road, #01-10, Chomp Chomp Food Centre. Singapore 557269. Open daily except Monday, 4.30pm-12am. 

Photos: CY

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