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Rising costs have led to hawkers raising their prices, but there are a group of stall holders who are holding prices steady.
There are at least three economy rice hawkers keeping their prices, well, economical, as prices at their respective stalls remain unchanged.
Mixed vegetable rice stall @ S Luck Eating House
47-year-old Ye Hualiang, who has been operating at the same coffeeshop for over two decades, told Mothership that he has maintained prices for close to 10 years.
They also operate from 5:30am to 2am to cater to taxi drivers, who make up a large part of their clientele.
Photo by Fiona Tan
Photo by Fiona Tan
Here's a lowdown of what you can get at each price point:
- S$2: three veg
- S$2.50: one meat and two veg, or two meat
- S$3: two meat and one veg
- S$3.50: two meat and two veg
Apart from rice, the stall also offers noodles such as hor fun and bee hoon.
Photo by Fiona Tan
Here is what some customers were buying:
Photo by Fiona Tan
This packet cost S$3.50. Some fish options are priced the same as meat dishes at this stall.
Photo by Fiona Tan
These two packets cost S$3.60 in total.
Photo by Fiona Tan
These three packets of mixed veg rice, along with a separate packet which contained two servings of steamed egg, cost S$10.50 in total.
Ye shared, "We have a lot of regular customers who have been buying from us for years, which is one of our considerations. That's why we have no plans to increase prices yet."
Address: Block 262 Serangoon Central Drive #01-97
Goldhill Family Restaurant
53-year-old Guo Fucai (all names in hanyu pinyin) told Shin Min Daily News (SMDN) that he is trying to absorb as much of the rising costs.
He explained, "Most of our customers are regulars, blue-collar workers or salarymen. Everyone's salaries have stayed the same, so life isn't easy (for them either)."
Guo noted that there are some who have all three of their daily meals from his stall.
Here's what you can get at each price point:
- S$2: one meat and one veg, or three veg
- S$2.50: two meat, one meat and two veg, or four veg
- S$3: two meat and one veg, one meat and three veg, or five veg
- S$3.50: one meat and four veg, two meat and two veg, or three meat
- S$4: three meat and one veg
- S$5: three meat and three veg
Photo via Google Maps
Photo by Shin Min Daily News
Vegetable dishes sometimes include luncheon meat, sardines or otah. Some of the meat dishes offered are chicken wings, curry chicken and sweet and sour pork.
Address: Block 6 Hougang Avenue 3 #01-78
Lai Heng Economical Mixed Vegetable Rice
71-year-old Chen Mingzhu explained that she raised her prices by "about 10 to 20 cents" to keep things affordable for her regulars.
Photo by Shin Min Daily News
S$2.30 will get you one meat and two veg dishes at her stall, and you'll pay S$3 if you want two meat and two veg dishes.
Address: Kim Keat Palm Market & Food Centre, 22 Lorong 7 Toa Payoh
Top photos by Fiona Tan