12/05/2011

New opportunities in hawking

Raising standards of hawkers is a good thing and offers many opportunities for more economic activities and economic growth. The first thing is to set up a culinary school for hawkers, give it a good branding and French men may come here to take lessons too. Make sure the fee is high and at the end of the course, give a nicely printed Diploma on a nice shit of paper.
The next money making opportunity for the hawkers is to raise the price. The customers can’t expect to pay $4/$5 for a plate of quality char kway teow prepared by chef from our culinary school right? The hawker chefs will definitely be preparing better quality food in hawker centres and food courts and the customers will definitely be happy with better quality food. No doubt about it.
Actually there is another way to make easy money in hawking, and no need to work so hard. Just get a hawker stall and sublet it to the hawker chefs and sit back to collect $10k or more rents. This is the clever way of earning big money without having to sweat the small stuff.
Next development will be making fishmongers, butchers and vegetable sellers more professional, and upgrade smelly wet market to clean air conditioned market. The quality of life must improve and we cannot go on and on with wet and dirty markets. They can join the hawkers and call themselves PMETs. This is upgrading definitely.

18 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Actually what bullshit standard are they thinking of?

They should do something about the hawker stalls changing hands at $300K each, resulting in expensive food of low quality. I know, they will say, if it is expensive, don't patronise the stall or look elsewhere for cheaper food. Easier said than done.

There is a lucrative market for stalls changing hands at hundreds of thousands of dollars, while customers are left to suffer the consequences of the cost being passed to them, through high stall rentals due to subleting from stall owners out to make a kill to recoup their investments.

For many years now, I've avoided hawker food -- it is mostly horrible.

There are a few cher char places left, and a few "gems" in Geylang, JooChiat etc, but for the most part hawker food is rubbish, and most of it is way unhealthy anyway.

No problem lah redbean... if the prices go up, it simply might become more economical to cook and eat at home.

Around the world there is a renaissance in personal cuisine with so many cooking shows on TV. Many folks are spending big bucks on kitchens – go to Balestier area and see the renovator supply businesses doing explosive business.

So if the hawkers are not up to standard, fuck them and fuck the value of their stalls.

Hehe..I am the one who suggested in the net somewhere to have more hawker centres before they recently announce the plan.

We should support hawker centres and those hawkers more.My Tampines neighourhood kopitiam at one time are run by those related to one another and the price is more expensive compare to those at the then Cuppage hawker stall.Prices increase every time they renovate.This is why I says that hawker centres is the way to go.More HC mean I am able to enjoy more delicious food at a more affordable price.It also helps to create jobs for those with little education but wish to be hawker.Every hawker would have to give you the best if they want to survive.No need to have those kaykiang regulation to tell them how to cook ,upgrade and to raise standard.And no sublet please.

Come on you people, you want quality and you want it cheap? How Can. The newly professionally trained hawkers, with a diploma to hang in front of the hawker stall should demand a higher price for their food.

They should give a big fight with the restaurant chef for quality food. Hey, they need a better life man, and pay hike every other year.

The quality of life of Singaporeans will improve with better hawker food.

Your understanding and assumption of this conversation are totally out of this world.

Susan Lim is the most wronged person in Singapore. She got all the wrong advices and ended with a sore ego. Who on earth, or what on earth made her think those markups would be seen as reasonable?

Even then, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the markups. That was her price.

With her years of professional training and reputation, she oculd command any price she wants. Why not? Who is there to say cannot? Anyone who wants her service and attention just have to pay her price.

She forgot to explain that she is pegging her income to the top politicians in the country. Between her expertise and the expertise of a politician, which commands a higher price? Which dictates a more intensive and higher level of training and skills? You can parachute anyone from anywhere, with any kind of background, to be a politician. You can't do that in her profession. It is highly specialised skills.

Despite this episode, she will still have her high net worth clients who would not mine paying her for her skills. Just say it out front that whoever comes to her would have to accept her price.

Hers is a business, a professional business. There is only one Susan Lim. You want you pay.

Hawker food is not hotel or restaurant food cooked by cooks needing diplomas. That is all shit from the mouth of people with nothing but shit inside their heads.

In the old days, the food sold by hawkers by the side of old shophouses and along streets, were really tasty treats, cooked by uneducated hawkers.

Now, we have nice looking, spanking new airconditioned kopi-tiam, manned by young, fairly well educated hawkers, who probably knows next to nothing about cooking, not to talk about the quality of the food they cook.

You can give them a Phd, but that will not make a dime of difference to their cooking. Good food is created by people with the heart and dedication and nothing else. That is why many people say that the food cooked by their mother taste the best. How true!

There was a programme on TV not long ago about hotel and restaurant chefs going around teaching hawkers how to cook. The hawkers were of course coerced to use hotel/restaurant quality ingredients. How much are they expecting the hawkers to sell their food using such high quality expensive ingredients I wonder.

Before the old Hougang Avenue 2 hawker centre was demolished, wooden Goh was there trying to win votes for Eric Low with upgrading. The old folks there were not interested. They said that good and cheap food is more important than having an upgraded hawker centre with lousy food.

What is the point of hawkers wearing chef's clothing and head dresses, displaying diplomas at their stalls, but selling low quality food at exhorbitant prices that old and poor folks cannot afford?

The Kopitiam Association must conduct training and inspection of all kopi stalls. Make sure the standard of kopi is improved.

The association can make a lot of money by providing training, membership fee, accreditation, kopi making certificate, awards, etc etc. Those non members will not be accredited. The accreditation certificate must be hung in front of the stall as proof of kopi got standard.

They got no talent to think of all these things? No wonder standard go down.

Why are our Ministers and MPs making all those ridiculous suggestions, like more professionalism in hawking, that will ultimately result in more expensive hawker food cooked by diploma trained hawkers?

In all my postings, one of my key principles is to avoid tarnishing anyone personally, and the least for indiscretion in their private live...

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