Disgruntled that he did not receive pork lard with his minced meat noodles, a hangry man in Toa Payoh hurled the tray and bowl of food at the tray return point and stomped off.

Regular customer

The noodle stall's owner Aloysius Tan shared the incident on the Hawkers United - Dabao 2020 Facebook group on Aug. 9, 2023.

According to Tan, the man was a regular customer and would routinely arrive to order food some 20 to 30 minutes before the stall's closing.

The man patronised Tan's stall on Aug. 8 afternoon and ordered a bowl of noodle soup.

All was fine and good until he sat down and realised that there was no pork lard in his noodles.

Ran out of pork lard for the day

Tan said he returned to the stall to request for pork lard but the staff were unable to accede to his request as the stall had run out of that fine topping for that day.

They explained this to the man and he returned to his seat.

Tan said he observed that the man appeared grouchy at that point.

He added that the man remained seated for a while before he abruptly erupted and tossed the tray and the barely eaten bowl of noodle soup at the tray return point, as seen in his video.

Commotion shocked other diners

The man went back to his table, grabbed his spectacles and stomped off.

The man's outburst shocked several diners at the coffee shop and they all turned to look at the commotion.

Made a mess

Tan also shared photos of the aftermath showing where the noodles and soup have landed on the ground and pieces of the broken red melamine plastic bowl.

He said the man left a mess behind that the coffee shop cleaners had to clean up.

Ran out of pork lard for the day

In response to Tan's post, most of the commenters said that the man's actions were uncalled for.

Several commenters said Tan could have handled the situation better by not sharing the incident on Facebook.

They also suggested that Tan prepare more pork lard in anticipation of the man's orders since he was a regular customer.

In doing so, they said Tan has burnt bridges and lost a regular customer.

Tan defended himself and said customers are not automatically entitled to pork lard at his stall.

He said the ingredient is only available upon request and is subject to availability on that day.

Some commenters agreed with Tan and said the man is not entitled to pork lard just because he is a regular customer.

Other commenters were a little more empathetic.

They suggested that the man was either hangry — hungry and angry — or could simply be having a bad day.

You can read Tan's post below.

Top image from Aloysius Tan/Facebook