[ad_1]
SINGAPORE – Kristen Choong had accepted her family’s decades-old noodle stall in Singapore would likely fold when she retires.
Now, battling a 90 per cent drop in business due to the coronavirus pandemic, she is constantly having to reassure customers that the stall will survive the next few months.
“I really have (to) tell people, we’re still here. If we weren’t then it would be tragic…We’ll do our best to keep going,” said 45-year old Choong, who runs the Ji Ji Noodle House with her ageing mother.
Government orders last month for people to stay home to curb the disease abruptly halted a Singapore tradition of eating out at its more than 100 hawker centres – sprawling food courts serving up cheap regional cuisine.
This hawker culture – which has given rise to the world’s cheapest Michelin-starred meals and been featured in movies like Crazy Rich Asians – is being considered for UNESCO status.
Ji Ji was started by Choong’s grandfather from a pushcart before it moved into Hong Lim Market in the 1970s when the government first built hawker centres to clean up the island. The stall features in Michelin’s Singapore food guide.
[ad_2]
Source link
