Guests at Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Lawrence Wong's swearing-in on May 15 will be staying around after the ceremony for a meal, and feeding an approximately 700-strong crowd of dignitaries and guests is no mean feat.

Five hawkers have gladly stepped up to the challenge.

Mothership spoke with three of them to find out what it's like to cook for such an event.

Evident excitement

All three hawkers were upbeat about their upcoming engagement when we spoke to them.

Each of them plied us with samples of what the guests would be tasting at the swearing-in event, eagerly seeking our feedback on their offerings.

Ponamah Shunmugam from Sky Lab Cooked Food said she would be getting up at 4am on Wednesday to prepare the dough for the stall's signature prawn vadai — the dough has to have time to ferment, otherwise, "it will be hard. It won't be soft," she explains.

"Not everyone can visit the Istana," she noted, when we spoke to her at her stall at Tekka Market. "So we are lucky to be there."

Sky Lab Cooked Food was set up by Ponamah's father in the 1960s, and they originally plied their fare along Short Street.

The stall took its current name in the 1970s — Ponamah's husband, looking for a unique and memorable name, found the now-decommissioned space station Skylab as his inspiration.

"Very happy and excited," was Lai Yeong Oon's immediate response when asked how he felt about the event.

Lai's stall, Quan Xin Vegetarian Food at Bedok 538 Market & Food Centre, will be providing vegetarian mee siam for the event.

Energetic and friendly, he jovially handed us dabao boxes of his vegetarian bee hoon after the interview, insisting that we had to try some for ourselves.

Lai is a veteran, both in serving food for official events and in the hawker business as a whole.

"This is the fifth time I'm doing something like this," he said in Mandarin, pointing to pictures of him posing with former President Halimah Yaacob and other VIPs at his booth at the Istana.

"I did this for Tharman and Halimah's inaugurations, and also at two New Year celebrations. All at the Istana."

He's been running his vegetarian stall since 1988, and also passed down his cooking skills and recipes to his son and daughter, who operate their own hawker stall in Aljunied.

Lai shared that he's declared the stall closed to regular customers for the day of the swearing-in, so he can focus on preparing the hundreds of servings of mee siam that he'll dish out at the Istana.

He's also decided that after the evening of hard work, he'll take a well-deserved rest day on Thursday (May 16) as well.

Meanwhile, at Old Airport Road Hawker Centre, Doreen Lim of Whitley Road Big Prawn Noodles insisted on serving us prawn noodles before the interview, saying: "You must eat first, then you understand what we're talking about!"

Her stall, which takes its name from the now-defunct food centre underneath the Whitley Road Flyover, is recommended by the Michelin Guide.

No stranger to providing food at events, Doreen drew our attention to a photo of her posing with Halimah and other officials in front of her booth.

After staffing two events in 2019, however, she was prevented from taking part in more by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This event is her first since then, and she's clearly stoked to make a comeback.

Local ingredients key parts of the dish

All three hawkers are incorporating locally-sourced ingredients in their dishes.

This initiative is jointly led by the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE), the Singapore Food Agency, and the National Environment Agency, in consultation with the Istana.

In a media factsheet, MSE explained that this initiative "demonstrated the Government’s support for local produce and commitment to strengthening Singapore’s food security".

For his mee siam, Lai will be working with bean sprouts from Bean Farm Pte Ltd, as well as quail eggs supplied by N&N Agriculture.

Lim is also using Bean Farm's bean sprouts in her prawn noodles, while Ponamah is making prawn vadai using fresh prawns from Qian Hu Fish Farm.

All three hawkers agreed that local ingredients tend to be fresher, since they spend less time in the supply chain.

Prices are reasonable, added Lai, while Lim said she found that "the quality assurance is there" when it came to local ingredients.

"We have to support local ingredients because it's from Singapore, you see," Ponamah told us. "We should encourage others to do that and we introduce our customers to that as well."

Using local ingredients instead of imported produce tends to be more eco-friendly, since transporting them consumes fewer resources and produces less carbon emissions.

Due to the shorter time they spend in the supply chain, they tend to be fresher as well, and buying such produce also supports local businesses.

The Singapore Food Agency has set a target known as "30 by 30" —  that is, for Singapore to produce 30 per cent of its own food by 2030.

It's not just about being eco-friendly, but also reducing Singapore's reliance on foreign imports, which improves the country's food security.

Singapore experienced some food price increases during the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, as supply chain disruptions affected the flow of imported goods, but local food sources can help alleviate the impact of such global events.

Hawkers' hopes and well-wishes for the event

All three hawkers were excited at the chance to interact with the various ministers at the swearing-in, and were well aware they would be playing a small but important role in a historical event.

"We hope the new PM will make the people happy," said Ponamah. "Best wishes to him."

"We are looking forward to many many good years in the future, with our new Prime Minister Lawrence Wong," said Lim.

Asked if they had anything they'd like to say to PM Lee and DPM Wong, both Lai and Lim had something more practical on their minds.

"I hope they can come take a group photo with me on Wednesday," Lai requested, gesturing at the other photos decorating his stall.

"We have a little bit of a wish," Lim told us, tentative but hopeful.

"If we could take a picture with them it will be very nice for us. Because it's a historical event for all of us."

Top photo by Andrew Koay.