Heart and Soul - the key ingredients

I always believe that if one puts his heart and soul into providing good food for people, he will be able to have a successful business. Just wanna give 2 examples:

a. Teochew Char Kway Teow @ Margaret Drive

The queue at this stall is never ending. The char kway teow by this one-man-operation is good. But I believe the reason for the success for this uncle is also his attitude that is definitely worth top marks. He frys every plate of char kway teow individually. Using only eggs and cockles (no fish cake, no chinese sausages), he whips out plate after plate of moist and delicious char kway teow with a smile that never leaves his face. Ever willing to accommodate special requests (although there's not much room for variety with limited ingredients...), he is never hot under the collar even working in front of the hot stove.

Word has it that there was once a loyal customer who has travelled far to eat his char kway teow. But alas, he has sold out all his noodles. Not willing to see his customer disappointed, he suggested to the customer to go to the fish ball noodle stall to buy a bowl of raw kway teow and mee. He then heats up his wok again and fried a plate of char kway teow just for his customer... absolutely FREE! He said that since the customer has already paid for the ingredients elsewhere, it is not fair to pay more for the same plate of char kway teow. Now that is SERVICE!


b. Rui Xing Coffee Stall @ Bedok Central (hawker centre next to market, NOT the bus terminal)


There are at least 5 coffee stalls at this hawker centre. Rui Xing is the only one with long queues. Not only that, they close shop as early as 11:30AM!!! Full effort is put in to every cup of coffee. He even makes sure that every cup is pre-heated with hot water before the coffee is poured into it. This will ensure that every cup of coffee is piping hot as it should. The coffee powder used is made from fragrant, charcoal grilled beans. But more importantly, he is generous in the usage of the powder, thus giving full flavoured coffee that packs punch!

Both stall owners knows that life is more than just work. The char kway teow seller sells only at night while the coffee seller only the day. They know when enough is enough. They would rather spend the rest of the time doing what they like to enjoy life instead of breaking their backs to earn more. For that I respect them. There's more wisdom here than what is taught in universities...

What the duck!

Have not posted for a while... just wanna show the pix of the duck noodles that I lurve so much!!

Duck noodles!

Thot I'll retype another portion of the post I lost on Margaret Drive Hawker Centre.

My fave (or one of them at least) is Jin Du Ya Fan Ya Mian. It serves braised duck. The "tzup" they use to braise the duck, tofu, egg etc is simply great! The duck meat is cooked to perfection. Go for noodles as the rice is a bit too dry for me... plus there's more "tzup" in the dry noodles... (^_^)

Oh yes, must must get your bowl of soup too! It's peppery with taste of chinese herbs. Very authentic and shiok! There are of course down sides...

The ducks are sometimes not "de-feathered" cleanly enough at the wings (which I like) and can look quite gross... My fave is to have "kway teow" dry... but the kway teow they use is not the best grade so it's a bit "rough"... But for $2.50 a bowl (they used to sell only $2), I think it's worth it man... I usually go for $3 to get more meat (yum....) and add tofu or egg for another $0.50...

MUST TRY MUST TRY!!!