Need to post this here because I am still sitting at the hawker centre food court, staring at my plate of cai png in utter disbelief and anger.
I (30M) went down to my usual hawker centre for a quick weekday lunch. It was during peak hour—12:30 PM—so the cai png queue was already long like MRT train breakdown.
I waited 15 minutes, finally reached the front, and pointed at my usual items: steamed egg, sweet & sour pork, and curry chicken potato.
Because I’m watching my carb intake recently, I explicitly told the stall auntie in clear, loud Singlish:
“Auntie, rice give me LESS rice can? Half bowl will do, thanks!”
She gave me a quick nod, scooped a whole normal portion of rice onto the plate, and then—with the most casual hand motion ever—scraped off maybe three grains of rice back into the rice cooker.
I thought okay lah, at least she acknowledged it.
Then I moved down to the cashier section to pay. She looked at my plate and barked: “Total $6.80.”
I froze. I’ve been buying the exact same 2 meat 1 veg combination from this stall every week for the past year, and it has ALWAYS been $6.30 flat.
I politely asked: “Auntie, sorry ah, usually $6.30 right? Today why $6.80?”
You know what this auntie had the sheer cheek to tell me with a straight face in front of the whole queue?
“Aiya, you ask for ‘less rice’, customized order extra labor charge 50 cents lor! Special request need money one!”
WALAO EH?! WHAT EXTRA LABOR?! 💀💀💀
She literally spent MORE effort scraping three grains of rice off the plate than she would have if she just gave me a normal scoop, and now she is charging me a 50-cent penalty fee for SAVING HER RICE?!
I looked down at the plate. The rice mountain was still practically untouched! It was the exact same full portion of rice as the uncle sitting next to me who ordered normal rice!
I tried to argue: “Auntie, less rice you save inventory right? Why charge more? And the portion still same what!”
She completely ignored me, tapped her foot impatiently, and shouted to the queue behind me: “Next! You pay or not? Don’t waste people time!”
Because there were 20 hungry office workers glaring at the back of my head, I ended up tapping my PayLah $6.80 like a complete clown just to avoid creating a bigger scene.
Now I’m sitting here eating my overpriced $6.80 cai png, paying a premium to consume the exact same amount of carbs I asked to reduce. Shrinkflation I can accept, but Customization Tax for ordering LESS food is a whole new level of hawker extortion!
Am I crazy or is cai png pricing getting completely out of hand in Singapore? What’s the most ridiculous surcharge an hawker auntie has ever pulled on you guys? Sibei dulan sia.