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A man recently shared on Facebook about how he received a bag of trash instead of the mala hotpot he had ordered from mala stall in Choa Chu Kang.

The stall in question, Chuan Wei Mala Hot Pot, initially denied that the incident was their fault, and asked the man to take down his Facebook post.

However, they have since admitted that the delivery of the bag of trash was a mistake on their part, according to Shin Min Daily News (Shin Min).

What happened

On Mar. 11 evening, the customer named Zephyr Jun Xiang Ng placed an order from Chuan Wei Mala Hot Pot but was handed the bag of trash by the foodpanda delivery rider.

The next day morning, he shared the incident on Facebook to caution others about the stall.

The bag felt "suspiciously lightweight" to Ng, and was filled with used tissues, crumpled receipts, food wrappers and order slips from Chuan Wei Mala Hot Pot.

Ng also claimed that there were cockroaches inside the bag as well.

Chuan Wei Mala Hot Pot subsequently reached out to Ng on Mar. 12 to apologise.

They shared that they are conducting an internal investigation and have lodged a police report.

They stated that is also "impractical" for their chef to prepare an order filled with trash, and said it "highly doubt[s]" the error was made by their chef.

The stall also requested for Ng to take down his Facebook posts, as the posts might "mislead people".

Previously on Mar. 8, Ng ordered from the same stall but received a "mysterious black soup".

For both incidents, Ng reached out to foodpanda, and has received refunds and two S$2 vouchers.

Bag of trash was on same table as other food delivery orders

On Mar. 13, Shin Min managed to get in touch with the stall owner of Chuan Wei Mala Hot Pot.

The stall owner admitted that the delivery of the trash was an error on their part after reviewing their CCTV footage.

The owner also claimed that they had checked the footage on Mar. 12, immediately after seeing Ng's Facebook post.

On Mar. 11 when Ng placed his order, one of the two employees at the stall was apparently cleaning up, and had placed the bag of trash on the same table where delivery orders for pick-up were placed on, Shin Min reported.

The owner told Shin Min that the two employees were very busy as it was dinner time, and there were at least six more takeaway orders to prepare.

The receipt for Ng's order was mistakenly attached to the bag of trash, and the foodpanda rider subsequently picked it up.

Mala stall has not updated Ng

When Mothership reached out to Ng on Mar. 14, he shared that he was not aware of this revelation.

Chuan Wei Mala Hot Pot has not provided him with any updates despite their clarification to Shin Min on Mar. 13.

Ng's last message to them was on Mar. 13 as well.

Ng had asked for an explanation from them regarding the incident, and added that he "genuinely just want to enjoy mala from [their] stall".

Ng's account of the incident received some scepticism on Facebook.

Several people accused him of portraying the stall in a negative light, and scamming the stall and foodpanda in order to get refunds and free vouchers.

Here are some of the reactions.

Ng shared that he was "quite mentally affected" by the reactions over the weekend.

Currently, he simply wishes for "an end to this ordeal", whether Chuan Wei Mala Hot Pot chooses to update him on their findings or not.

He told Mothership that he might order from them in the future, but only for dine-in instead of takeaway.

"I hope they can be more mindful of their food preparation in the future for other customers. I will consider to eat their mala, but only dine-in not via food delivery services. Hahaha who knows what I will get next time if I ordered through the app."

Ng added:

"The rider should also be more cautious when collecting the order. If it's like missing an ingredient, that's understandable if it goes unnoticed, but collecting a light bag of rubbish?

Lastly, I wish those people who assumed and jumped into their own conclusions to be less ignorant and have a great day ahead. Hope you don't encounter such incident."

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Top photo from Zephyr Jun Xiang Ng / FB and Terence Kew / Google Maps