EXPECTATIONS OF LOW PRICES
According to former head chef Nurl Asyraffie Mohamed Shukor, who now runs hawker stall Kerabu by Arang, patrons at hawker centres expect fast, cheap and filling meals.
In an 8days interview, he explains: “A lot of people don’t understand my food and they ask, ‘why is it so expensive?’ They don’t understand the work behind it. For the chicken, I need to brine it for two hours, then marinate overnight. The whole process is very tedious but they only see rice, chicken, and salted egg on the plate and think it should be S$3.”
However, this seems not to be the case for BlackGoat, a popular hawker stall serving Western-style cuisine, with prices ranging from S$9 for a brownie to S$59.50 for 495g of striploin, significantly higher than traditional local hawker fare. According to BlackGoat’s reviews, customers deem the food “value for money”.
It appears that hawker patrons expect local fare to remain cheap, but are willing to spend more money on other cuisines. Is it a case of double standards?
While Singaporeans’ reluctance to pay more for hawker food could be attributed to internalised bias – where Singaporean cuisine must justify its worth while foreign cuisines, such as Italian or Japanese, are priced without question – the issue is more complex.
Singaporeans perceive traditional hawker food as “everyday food” rather than an occasional luxury. While fishball noodles may require more work and incur higher production costs than aglio olio, for instance, one could argue that it is the frequent consumption, rather than its lack of inherent value, that drives consumers to demand lower prices.
After all, there are successful entrepreneurs who sell local dishes at premium prices outside traditional hawker centres.
For example, the air-conditioned restaurant The Coconut Club offers their signature ayam goreng berempah nasi lemak at S$22.80, while a bowl of prawn noodle at Zhup Zhup, an open-air restaurant, ranges from S$14 to S$20.
During a recent visit to Zhup Zhup well before dinnertime, I was surprised to see most tables occupied with customers. However, for most hawkers serving traditional fare at hawker centres, the notion that prices should be kept low persists.
