Walao eh, I really cannot take it anymore. Just came back from my neighborhood hawker center in Toa Payoh, and my blood is practically boiling higher than the wok temperature at the stall.
I had a rough day at work, OT until 7:30 PM, so I decided to treat myself to a nice, greasy plate of Char Kway Teow to soothe my soul. Standard stall I’ve been buying from for the past three years. Usually, it’s $4.50 for a decent portion that actually fills up a grown adult.
I walked up to the stall, and straight away I saw a brand new laminated printed notice taped on the signboard: “Due to rising ingredient and electricity costs, prices will be adjusted.” Okay, fair enough, inflation is real, GST is 9%, rental is sky high, everybody needs to survive right? So the small portion went from $4.50 to $5.50. A whole $1 increase. I told myself, chup zi (ten) cents extra per bite, still okay lah, at least give uncle support.
Then uncle handed me my packet.
Bro. When I picked up the brown paper packet, I thought he gave me the wrong order. I thought I accidentally ordered a side dish of extra lard oil or something. The packet felt so light, I was wondering if there was a hole in the bag and half my noodles fell out on the floor.
I opened it up at home, plated it into my bowl just to see how much food was actually inside. IT LITERALLY FILLED LESS THAN HALF OF A KIDS’ PLASTIC BOWL.
I counted the ingredients out of sheer disbelief:
- Two small twirls of yellow noodle mixed with flat kway teow (basically three mouthfulness total).
- Half a slice of lup cheong (Chinese sausage) sliced so thin you can see through it like a microscope slide.
- ONE single, microscopic hum (cockle) that looked like it gave up on life in 2022.
- Zero fishcake, zero bean sprouts, and barely any egg crumbs.
SIBEI OVERRATED SIA! I paid $5.50 for what is essentially a teaser sample, a starter course, an appetizer for my actual dinner! If you want to raise your price by 20%, fine, charge me $5.50! But don’t charge me 20% more AND trim the portion down by 50% at the same time! That’s not a price adjustment, that’s daylight robbery!
At this rate, eating hawker food is becoming a luxury. Next time if I go back, am I going to pay $7.00 just for the uncle to waft the wok hei smell into my face and send me on my way? Might as well go to Sheng Siong, buy one packet of kway teow for $1.10, fry it myself at home, and add my own five full cockles.
Anyone else experiencing this ridiculous double-whammy shrinkflation recently? Which stalls in SG are still giving normal human-sized portions without cutting corners? Please drop recommendations before I starve to death on $5.50 appetizers.