This couple’s hawker centre is an unlikely hit with customers

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This couple’s hawker centre is an unlikely hit with customers

It is perhaps this uncommon sense of gratitude and their cheerful attitude that makes the couple more popular in the hawker centre. Most of their customers who stop by to buy a drink seem to know them well.

Goh and Chua operate their stall from 6 am to around 1 pm, but they are usually sold out by noon. We foolishly went for lunch before heading to Sun Kee, only to find out that the beancurd S $0.60 and warm drinks were all gone in less than an hour.

I will keep for you, aiyah. You should have reserved earlier. That was what he did, Choon Huay chirped in Mandarin, gesturing to an uncle sitting next to the stall. In front of him were bulging plastic bags with 16 containers of tau huay.

As he walked off, he saw us eyeing his loot and inexplicably bellowed: Oi don t judge me ah! Goh and Chua charge S $0.30 for a small-sized cup of soya bean milk, grass jelly or bird's nest drink. The big cup is priced at $0.50, but if you order the drinks in a plastic bag, it costs S $0.30, S $0.50 and S $1 for the small, medium and large sizes.

Goh said that they make the bird's nest drink by themselves, and that it is a process that involves boiling pandan leaves. Despite its name, there is very little bird s nest in this beverage, which hit peak popularity a few decades back as a wallet-friendly thirst-quencher sold from streetside carts.