January 21, 2019, 05:04 PM 
Singapore announced our bid for our hawker culture to be inscribed onto UNESCO's Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity last year.
As part of the nomination, the National Heritage Board (NHB) launched a social movement called "Support Our Hawkers" which calls for Singaporeans to appreciate their favourite hawkers.
And some 40 hawkers got the ball rolling by thanking their mentors, parents and fellow hawkers who inspired them in keeping the hawker culture alive. Here are some of our favourites:
Hawker-Centre Romance
Located at ABC Brickworks Market and Food Centre, Wow Wow West Genuine is a western food stall run by a married couple, Elizabeth and Jayden. According to Elizabeth, Jayden started out as a customer before he became her husband and joined her family's hawker business.
“When I was asked which hawker I'd like to thank, I immediately thought of my husband. Before he was my husband, he was my customer when I was helping at my parents’ original stall at Redhill Lane. Sometimes I'm not sure if he fell in love with me or the food first. But either way, I didn't expect him to change his careers to take up the life of a hawker too! It's been six years since, and I'm so proud of the hard work he puts in every day from the time he wakes up at 6am. It's not easy to be a young hawker, so thank you Jayden for continuing the legacy of Wow Wow West, and what my parents had first built.”
Wow Wow West's Jayden and Elizabeth. Image via Wow Wow West Genuine's Facebook page.
Hawker bromance
Over at Maxwell Food Centre, Keith (of Lad & Dad) and Hock Soon (of Ramen Taisho) started their stalls at around the same time.
Both credit each other for helping to test out new recipes and for building a community together.
Family support
Being a hawker requires a lot of support from family. These hawkers from Langkawi Muslim Food, Haron Satay and Jin Ji Teochew Braised Duck and Kway Chap credit their families for playing integral roles in their businesses.
For example, Langkawi Muslim Food is run by Mohamed Hajali and his mother. Hajali credits his mother for cooking so many dishes each day with a smile.
Jin Ji is run by second-generation hawker Melvin Chew and his mother. He credits his parents for working hard as hawkers to raise him and his siblings:
"I really want to thank my mum for teaching me everything I know about cooking and running a hawker stall."
Share your own hawker stories too
You can check out more amazing hawker stories at @SGHawkerCulture. This Instagram page was created by NHB to collate and encourage contributions from Singaporeans for the UNESCO nomination.
You can take part by sharing your photos and stories of your favourite hawkers with the hashtag #OurHawkerCulture. Each public post and "like" will be used as a pledge of support for Singapore's bid for the nomination.
You can find out more about the UNESCO nomination here:
Top images via Jin Ji and Haron Satay Instagram pages.
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