Is it just me, or has the universe flipped upside down? Just went to my local kopitiam for lunch, ordered a basic sliced fish soup with rice. No extra fish, no fried egg, just the standard. The auntie tell me: “$8.50.” I thought I heard wrong. I look at the menu board, and there it is—a fresh piece of paper taped over the old price, written in angry black marker. Apparently, the recent supply chain dramas and utility hikes hit them hard, so boom, automatic price upgrade.
Then it hit me. Last night, I didn’t know what to eat, so I opened my fast-food app and grabbed a McChicken meal with a drink and fries using a coupon. Total damage? $5.50. Even a standard meal without vouchers is hovering around $7 to $8.
How did we reach a point where highly processed, corporate fast food in an air-conditioned joint is officially cheaper than eating at a non-aircon heartland hawker centre?
It’s not just the fish soup. The “Cai Png” (economy rice) uncles are running a casino at this point. Last week, I ordered two meats and one veg. The uncle looked at my plate, did some mental gymnastics, and muttered, “$7.20.” I asked for a breakdown, and he pointed at the tiny pieces of pork belly and called it “premium meat.” If you dare to touch fish or sotong, you might as well swipe your credit card for installments.
And don’t get me started on the shrinking portions. The chicken rice looks like it was portioned for a newborn kitten. Three microscopic slices of cucumber, and chicken skin so thin it’s practically translucent. If I want to actually get full, I need to order “extra meat, extra rice,” which easily pushes the plate to $7.50.
I completely understand that our hawkers are facing brutal overheads—gas prices are up, ingredient costs are skyrocketing, and suppliers are slapping fuel surcharges on every single delivery. They need to survive too. But as a regular consumer, the math is just depressing. Fast-food chains have mass economies of scale to absorb the damage, while our local hawkers have no choice but to pass the cost down to us.
CNA+ 1
Are we witnessing the death of affordable hawker food? At this rate, cooking at home or just eating mass-produced burgers is going to become the default budget option. Feel like my wallet gets a major depression episode every time I walk into a food court now.
Anyone else noticed this tipping point, or am I just eating at the wrong stalls? What’s your go-to “still affordable” meal nowadays?