The answer is yes, the server will give you more liao (ingredients) if you're a pretty girl.

This is true for Reddit user Mynxs anyway, who started an Ask Me Anything (AMA) thread on his experience helping out part-time at his parents' cai png stall.

Cai png, for those who don't already know, loosely translates from Mandarin to "vegetable rice", and refers to the mixed food and rice found in hawker centres and coffee shops.

A typical day

Mynxs gets to the shop by 7am to prepare for breakfast. When breakfast food (e.g. bee hoon) starts to run out, they start their lunch preparation, which consists largely of washing and cutting vegetables, as well as cooking, among other things.

The lunch crowd lasts for two hours, which is roughly till 1.30pm. They then prepare vegetables for the next day. This will take a couple of hours, until around 4pm, where Mynxs' lunch shift (the only shift he works) ends.

How to get more liao if you're not a chio bu and such

We picked up five of the more pertinent questions from the thread that Mynxs' answered:

1. What do your worst customers do? ( by Reddit-Loves-Me)

"Give me $100 for a tree fiddy ($3.50) meal in the middle of lunch rush. Please go die you think funny ah. Also, customers who think that something tastes funny and bother me in the middle of lunch rush. Basically when there's a queue, just come and go ASAP. Oh, and people who count coins one by one when they reach the cashier (him)."

2. What do your best customers do? ( by Reddit-Loves-Me)

"Prep the note they're going to pay me in their hand so I can prep the change before they get to me. It's all about efficiency."

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3. Do you scoop more for some customers? If so, what are the qualities you look for? ( by Reddit-Loves-Me)

"Yes, when I used to scoop I'll give chiobu more. If you're super happy and bubbly you get more too. If you're rude af or talking on the phone and holding my line you can expect the minimum serving :|"

4. How well do you wash the veggies and rice? (by nextlevelunlocked)

"Mmm, as best as we can with the amount of time we have. For vegetables usually two washes, but you've to consider that it's washed en mass as well. Some vegetables are more easily cleaned than others as well. That TODAY/STOMP report is quite exaggerated but not unheard of. There're shops that we've seen or know that barely wash their veg.

Avoid the kangkong/spinach. If you've to find a veg that has the most worms it's probably those, and it's the hardest to clean as well because they have crevices in the stems (therefore kong xing cai, which translates to hollow vegetable). Even when you wash them in water the bugs might not come out."

5. What do you do with the leftovers? (by blackwiinter)

"Some things can't be kept, like anything with curry, which we throw. We throw away most vegetables. But we usually invite the cleaners and dishwashers to come pack their lunch and dinner first, so it's like a free flow buffet for them. To be honest tabao-ing (taking away) hardly happens, because we smell the same thing for the entire day we also sian.

For reselling, only some stuff can safely resell. YMMV (your mileage may vary) but there are shops out there that wash the sauce off items from day one to reuse on day two. Or fry chicken on day one, and throw sambal on it on day two for sambal chicken. Technically eat already won't die la, see how ethical they're feeling lor. Oh, braised stuff usually can just keep braising, especially if it's unused leftovers. Also watch out for cross contamination because there's a common scoop/tongs."

Lastly, we picked up a word of advice from Mynxs: Life is short, don't kiam (scrimp) on cai png.

Top image from Desiree Koh on Flickr.