28-Year-Old Hawker Opens Fish Soup Stall While Running Family’s Zi Char Biz At Same Time
Unlike most younger millennials, Alfred Chia, 28, hardly has any free time to spend on dating, going out with friends or just chilling. He spends seven days a week shuttling between his family’s zi char joint, Ah Nam BBQ Seafood, and his newly opened hawker stall, New Generation Fish Soup. The cheerful second-generation hawker started helping out at his parents’ stall when he was 13 years old, first doing jobs like waitering and cashiering, before learning to cook eight years ago. Last December, he decided to open his own stall selling a completely different dish at Moonstone F&B, a small coffeeshop in an industrial area at Playfair Road in MacPherson.
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Alfred set up his fish soup stall together with his pal and business partner, Michael Lim, 48, whom he met through playing darts. The duo invested around $10K to open the stall, saying they decided to sell fish soup because “office workers only have one hour lunch breaks, and fish soup is one of the faster meals they can have”.
Michael was a seafood supplier a few years ago. Just prior to opening New Generation Fish Soup, both guys worked nine-to-five jobs. Alfred, who has a diploma in Hairdressing and Salon Management from ITE (his attempt at being a hairstylist was short lived as he didn’t have the interest), worked as a roving officer at the Housing Development Board. Meanwhile Michael, who studied Mechatronics at Temasek Poly worked as a manager at the Ministry of Health. However, they both got retrenched earlier last year.
“My partner is like a big brother to me, and has helped me out with many things in life, so I invited him to start this business with me as he had also just gotten retrenched”, Alfred says.
Juggling two businesses
Currently, Alfred runs both Ah Nam BBQ Seafood at Changi Village Hawker Centre and New Generation Fish Soup. Ah Nam BBQ was opened by his dad over 20 years ago, but Alfred took over the stall after his dad suffered a stroke a few years ago, which left him and his mum running their family biz alone, taking turns to cook and man the stall after this day job back then. He says business there is mediocre, “but [they] still have regular supporters”. Alfred admits that “it’s quite tough and very tiring” to juggle both businesses, an arrangement that has left him with no off days.
Currently, he spends Mondays to Fridays at his fish soup joint, where he works from 9am till around 5pm, before rushing down to Changi Village (where his zi char stall is) in the evenings, working till midnight. As New Generation Fish Soup is closed on weekends, Alfred devotes Saturdays and Sundays to working at the zi char stall full-time. “If I have to prepare chilli sauces, I’ll cook till around 2am to 3am,” he adds.
Alfred, who has a girlfriend who helps out at the fish soup stall occasionally, shares that he has “not much personal time” for dating or hobbies, saying “the only free time I have is on Tuesday nights [when the zi char shop is closed], where I’ll go to a bar to play darts”, or go on dates. Even on Sundays, when he has mornings off before Ah Nam BBQ opens, he still has to head down to his fish soup stall to prepare his soup for the next day.
Why slog so hard?
So why hustle so hard instead of going back to a cushier corporate job? “You can say that maybe I’m more ambitious, I want to build a career for myself and not just be under my father’s ‘umbrella’”, he says, explaining that “Ah Nam BBQ Seafood is an empire that [his] father built”.
Despite the rigorous working hours, he also decided to stay in the hawker industry in order to preserve hawker culture in Singapore. Noticing that many older stalls have closed down after being unable to find successors, Alfred decided that “since I’ve already been in this trade since young, I can save it from dying”.
While business hasn’t been amazing, Alfred says they’ve “slowly started to see business picking up since January”.
He hopes to expand both his family and fish soup businesses, but there’s “the problem of a lack of manpower, especially because hawkers aren’t allowed to hire foreigners”.
The menu
Alfred and Michael take turns to cook at New Generation Fish Soup. Alfred “based the recipe on his own experience, and got some guidance from his parents”. Their stock base is simmered with pork and fish bones, no MSG. Alfred says he adds ginger to the soup for flavour.
There are five dishes on the menu: Teochew-style Batang Fish Soup ($5.50), Grouper Fish Soup ($7), Fried Fish Soup ($6), Double Fish Soup (with both fried and sliced fish) ($7), and Sliced Fish Porridge ($6). Noodles cost an additional 50 cents, with options including thick or thin bee hoon, ee mian, maggi mee, mee sua and bee tai mak. Milk can also be added for 20 cents.
8days.sg tried the best-selling Batang Fish Soup and Fried Fish Soup.
Batang Fish Soup with thick bee hoon, $6 [8 DAYS Pick!]
Following Alfred’s recommendation, we chose to pair our batang soup with silky thick bee hoon. The fish slices were tender, clean-tasting, and the clear soup was light and infused with the natural sweetness of the fish. The gently salted, flavourful broth is simmered with ikan bilis and has a nice peppery hint. Our bowl came topped with tofu, veggies and a tomato slice. As the soup doesn’t contain MSG, we didn’t feel too thirsty after our meal.
Fried Fish Soup with thin bee hoon & milk, $6.70
We had our fried dory fish soup with thin bee hoon and a dash of evaporated milk. The chunky fish slices were coated in a crispy golden batter, and we enjoyed it together with the creamy soup. This bowl tasted more indulgent, especially with the addition of milk which made the broth taste sweeter and richer. Enjoyable overall, but we still prefer the more wholesome clear fish soup.
New Generation Fish Soup is at Moonstone F&B, 82 Playfair Rd, S368001. Open Mon - Fri 11.30am - 4pm (Closed on Sat & Sun).
Photos: Kelvin Chia
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