"When I was seven years old, my dad used to drive a cab. He worked until midnight, pulling long hours. But sometimes, when he came home, he would take my mom and me out for supper, and it was always to get a bowl of Hokkien Mee, a prawn noodle dish popular in Singapore. As I watched the old hawker couple fry up the noodles, I was always intrigued by how it was made, the smoke and drama of it."
"Becoming a hawker was not my first choice. I've held several software engineering positions, including a development role at an AI company. I also launched a startup with smart vending machines, which failed due to a lack of funding. But during the pandemic, when I grew tired of remote work, I started experimenting with making Hokkien Mee. I started a small home-based side hustle selling the dish, but it was a small endeavor. On weekends, I'd sell maybe 20 plates daily."
"It was after I ended my two-year contract as a software developer for a global tech company that I thought I could find another job, or maybe I could do something that I was actually interested in. Earlier this year, I got selected for Gastrobeats, a local mentorship program that aims to build up local food businesses. At the end of it, I set up my stall in the Gastrobeats weeklong event tent beside Singapore's upscale Marina Bay Sands hotel."
Alvin Tan began making Hokkien Mee while working as a software engineer and ran a small home-based weekend side hustle selling about 20 plates per day. After his two-year tech contract ended, he chose to pursue hawker life full time. He joined Gastrobeats, a local mentorship program, and operated a stall at its weeklong event near Marina Bay Sands, cooking outdoors for the first time. Preparing 50 kilograms of prawn broth and plucking prawns for hours under a hot, humid tent proved physically exhausting. Hawker work is hot, tiring, and lonely, but Tan experienced personal growth and increased confidence from the intensive effort.
Read at Business Insider
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