The makan scene in Singapore is truly sad. In the past, only the stalls serving great food had long queues. Nowadays, when 99% of households eat out, even stalls that serve sub-standard food are seeing long queues on weekends and public holidays. As rentals at food stalls go through the roof, people who mind the stalls have become low-paid “sellers” and not the cooks themselves. I’ve heard that you can even buy ready-made roti prata dough, satay, mee siam and mee rebus gravy from a supplier. Any Tong, Dick or Halid who has lost his job due to “economic restructuring” can become a hawker.

It’s no wonder that the standard of food has dropped so drastically over the years. What really irks me is having to join a long queue to buy food that I can cook much better. This won’t do. I’d have to boycott the places that serve lousy food. It doesn’t matter if they are the only food court or kopitiam in my neighbourhood. I’m going to shop for ingredients at my neighbourhood minimart and DIM (Do It Myself).

As our population approaches 6.9M, all the food centres are going to be crowded. Food prices will rise and food quality will drop.

If there’s still good food out there, I want to know where it is and share the info with everyone. But eating out is seldom healthy. Oil is reused over and over again. Even some high class restaurants use that magic ingredient MSG.

The main objective of this blog is to 1) show off my culinary skills (I can fry with one hand) and 2) encourage home cooking. Come check out my latest experiments with some awesome ingredients readily available at your neighbourhood minimart. If I can do it, so can you.

The author on Neighbourhood Chef

© Chan Joon Yee (陈俊誉 Chen Junyu)