Union Farm Paper Wrapped Chicken Hawker Reopens Popular Stall After Hiatus

Fans of paper-wrapped chicken would have heard of Union Farm Chee Pow Kai. The hawker stall was started in the ’60s by a chicken farm owner and became famous for its tasty signature dish, which consists of a meaty chunk of marinated chicken wrapped with paper and deep-fried.

It’s so well-known that other hawkers were inspired to do their own versions, like Ronald Ong, 35, who runs turnip cake stall Chuan’s Ladle at Tekka Centre.

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The stall later moved from its original 435A Clementi Road location in 2017 when the land was sold off. Union Farm itself was permanently closed.

Two years later, the stall’s second-gen owner Chia Kar Wing, 60, reopened his father’s hawker stall in Jurong East at Toh Guan Road.

Kar Wing would remain there till September this year, when he was forced to move out again because his landlord sold the coffeeshop. “The [new] landlord didn’t renew our lease,” he tells 8days.sg.

With how things turned out, he was considering retiring for good. “I had wanted to stop for a while because there were some issues,” he shares, declining to reveal more.

But his regulars were clamouring for his chee pow gai, which was a recipe handed down by Kar Wing’s father. “So I opened my stall again,” Kar Wing laughs.

He shifted to a kopitiam unit just a few blocks away from his previous location, and started operating on Dec 8.

But here’s the catch: in order to secure your chee pow gai, you have to call Kar Wing at 8811-1616 at least one day in advance to preorder, as it’s almost impossible to get the chook as a walk-in customer. And here’s why.

Everything is wrapped by hand

The humble-looking chee pow gai is deceptively tricky to make. Together with his siblings, Kar Wing produces about 250 to 300 pieces of parchment paper-wrapped chicken by hand each day.

For this reason, his newly-opened stall only operates from Thursdays to Sundays as his family slogs at making the neat little parcels for the rest of the week. There’s delivery available, managed by Kar Wing’s godson. “It’s hard work to preserve the traditional method, our way of wrapping,” Kar Wing shares. “It’s impossible to use a machine to wrap the chicken.”

Making enough chee pow gai to keep up with their customers’ demand becomes physically challenging over the years. “All of us in the family are getting old,” says Kar Wing, who is unmarried. Most of his customers, he says, “have been with us for 40 to 50 years — my oldest customer is 94.”

They are known to order 40 pieces at a time, saving what they couldn’t finish in the freezer to refry. “It doesn’t affect the taste, so this is why sometimes I serve only around six customers a day. Someone even bought my chee pow gai and took it to Indonesia with him,” Kar Wing chuckles.

But he clarifies that “not everyone orders so many at one go”, so those who want to try the chicken can call him to check for its availability.

The stall menu 

Union Farm’s chee pow gai is sold at a minimum of five pieces ($12), 10 pieces ($24), 20 pieces ($47) and 40 pieces ($92).

Dine-in customers can also order Kar Wing’s signature Egg Noodle/Beehoon with Oyster Sauce ($3 for small; $8 for big) and Baby Kailan with Oyster Sauce ($9) to go with the chicken.

While he no longer serves his tofu and soup side dishes, Kar Wing still offers a whole Quail ($8), Fried Ngoh Hiang ($10) and a takeaway-only Pig Trotter Vinegar ($13).

When his original Clementi eatery closed in 2017, Kar Wing told The Straits Times that he was open to selling his brand and recipe. Since then, he has been approached by investors and even people who offered to partner him “to do frozen chee pow gai to sell in supermarkets.”

However, he has not inked a deal so far to expand his biz like opening a chain of outlets, the way his fellow famous hawker brand High Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle did. 

“It’s not that I’m selfish about sharing my recipe. It’s just that — what if they don’t do it justice?” he points out. “We are family-run, so we want to preserve our father’s recipe. If you increase your quantity, your quality might drop and with expansion stalls, the taste will be slightly different.”

The youthful Kar Wing has also worked at the stall for so long, he reckons his familiar presence is required to attract business. He jokes: “My customers must see me at the stall then they will know we’re from [the original Union Farm] at Clementi!”

Union Farm Chee Pow Kai is at 267A Toh Guan Rd, S601267. Open Thur-Sun, 11.30am-4pm or until sold out. Call 8811-1616 at least one day in advance to order.

Photos: Facebook/ Kenneth Chai

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