With her blond-highlighted hair pulled into a messy bun, bronzed skin, tank top and denim shorts, Dawn Ng looks more like she’d be serving flat whites at a beachside café than hand-making traditional Teochew kueh like soon kueh, png kueh and yam cake from scratch at Amoy Street Food Centre.
In fact, customers regularly ask the 60-year-old owner of Cha Dian Teochew Kueh what she’s doing at a hawker centre, with some wondering why the single hawker isn’t “sitting in an office” instead. One comment she hears a lot? “Chio bu”.
Not that it bothers her. In fact, Dawn takes it as a compliment.
“There are customers who tell me I’m their inspiration. They say, ‘When I grow up, I want to be like you’,” she laughs.
Most of the comments come from female regulars working in the CBD, though the occasional male admirer still shoots his shot.
“I just laugh it off,” says Dawn.
Back when she opened her stall in 2003, Dawn was also one of what fellow hawkers jokingly referred to as the food centre’s “si da mei nu“, or four beauties.
“We used to have four very beautiful ladies here. I’m one of them. The rest have all left already,” she says.
Specialised in cigars and wine in Sydney’s fine-dining scene
Dawn’s journey to this dying trade has been anything but conventional. At 18, she left Singapore for what was meant to be a holiday in Sydney, and ended up staying for more than a decade, working in cafés, restaurants and eventually fine-dining establishments, where she learnt about wine pairings and cigars.
“I was really young. I got my passport and I wanted to travel and see the world,” Dawn tells 8days.sg. A café owner offered her a job and eventually sponsored her visa, prompting her to stay on.
“This was in the late 1980s. Back then it was easy to find work [overseas]. I was very lucky,” she shares.
Over the years, she worked her way up from waitress to restaurant manager, eventually specialising in wine and cigars, a niche field she remains passionate about today.
It wasn’t until her mother visited her in the 1990s and reminded her not to forget her roots that she began thinking seriously about coming home.
Struggled to find work in S’pore initially
Returning to Singapore, however, was far from easy.
It took Dawn two years to adjust to the country’s fast-paced lifestyle. Despite her years of experience in Sydney’s F&B industry, she struggled to find work, repeatedly losing out to younger candidates.
“[Managers] were very honest. They looked at the age of the applicants. I’m the oldest. I was in my 30s,” she says.
After a short stint working for a gourmet food retailer, a workplace injury left Dawn rethinking her future.
During that period, a friend suggested they start a stall selling kueh. Little did she know that decision would change the course of her life.
Grew up helping at her parents’ hawker stall
Long before she became a hawker, Dawn had already spent much of her childhood around hawker food.
Her parents ran a stall in a coffee shop along Old Jurong Road, where her father sold snacks like Nyonya kueh, bai tang gao (Cantonese steamed sponge cake) and nasi lemak.
However, she didn’t learn to make Teochew kueh until much later in life. After deciding to start her own business, she picked up the craft from a friend who worked at a well-known Teochew kueh shop, before spending six months experimenting with recipes and perfecting her dough and fillings at home.
“I got recipes from cookbooks and some tips from my mum. Back then there was no YouTube,” she says.
Still, becoming a hawker herself was never part of the plan.
Friends had bet she wouldn’t last as a hawker
When Dawn opened Cha Dian with two friends in 2003, many people were sceptical.
“My friends even bet I won’t last three months,” she laughs.
Even her mother had doubts. “You should have seen how I looked then. I had long hair down to my waist. Very elegant, long nails,” Dawn shares.
“She would say things like, ‘You won’t be able to look beautiful anymore, all the nails and everything would have to go.’”
Eventually, her mother came around and even helped at the stall.
Biz partners pulled out after just 6 months so she worked solo
The early years were tough. After just six months, Dawn found herself running the stall alone after her business partners pulled out.
“We were selling the kueh at 60 cents apiece back then, how to make enough for so many salaries? They decided to leave, so I bought their shares and continued,” she shares.
“I had to work 16 hours a day.”
Wants to preserve dying trade
Winning customers over proved difficult too. When she first started out, many younger customers weren’t familiar with traditional Teochew kueh.
“They used to think kueh is for praying, especially the pink png kueh,” she says.
Rather than give up, Dawn doubled down on her mission to keep the traditional snack relevant.
“It’s a dying trade. No one wants to do this anymore,” she says.
She’s so passionate about preserving the craft that she signed up as a mentor under the National Environment Agency’s hawker apprenticeship programme. However, she has yet to be assigned a mentee.
To appeal to younger customers, she began experimenting with new flavours and fillings. One of her creations was spinach and mushroom kueh, which is now sold only on Fridays and has developed a loyal following.
These days, Dawn estimates that around half her customers are in their 30s and below, a far cry from when she first started.
Dawn believes customers keep returning because the food remains authentic.
“And of course, the love and heart we put in,” she adds.
Nearly 24 years on, she still handmakes all her kueh and tastes the fillings every morning before they go on sale.
“I have to QC,” she says matter-of-factly.
The job is taking a toll with work days from 4am
Her days are long and physically demanding. Dawn, who runs her stall with one helper, typically arrives at her stall at 4am to prepare fillings, mix dough and cook ingredients from scratch. Her workday often stretches until 2.30pm.
“I’m slower now because of my pain,” she says.
Dawn now works a maximum of 20 days a month due to tennis elbow and numbness in her hands, conditions she attributes to years of repetitive manual work.
Last year, the pain became so severe that she seriously considered giving up the biz. But walking away isn’t easy.
“This is my baby. I put a lot of my heart into the business. I saw it grow from nothing,” she says.
May retire next year if she can’t find a successor
She is actively searching for someone to collaborate with or eventually take over the business. She is even willing to offer profit-sharing arrangements, but has yet to find anyone interested in learning the craft.
“I’m seriously looking for someone to take over the legacy,” she says.
“If I can’t find someone to take over, I will eventually have to retire and the business has to cease.”
Retirement, however, doesn’t mean putting her feet up completely.
“I can’t retire fully, so I’ll have to downgrade my lifestyle. Get a simple part-time job and maybe do some volunteer work to keep busy,” says Dawn.
As for returning to the wine-and-cigar industry she once worked in, Dawn says that chapter of her life is firmly behind her.
“It’s too exhausting mentally. I’ve lost touch with that life already,” she explains.
She’s considering relocating to Bali, where friends have long encouraged her to join them.
“I just need to be near water,” she says, adding that she enjoys swimming and hits the public pool (“seniors only pay 50 cents!”) every week.
She even has a goal for her next chapter.
“My wish for my 60th birthday is to learn how to surf,” she says.
Soon Kueh, $1.80 (8 DAYS Pick!)
Cha Dian offers eight items, ranging from soon kueh and pumpkin cake ($1.80) to glutinous rice ($2.40). There’s also a spinach & mushroom kueh ($2.20), which is only available on Fridays. You can opt to have the kuehs steamed or pan-fried.
If you’re visiting for the first time, start with the soon kueh.
Generously stuffed with crunchy shredded turnip and carrot, each plump dumpling is packed with filling. The hae bee lends savoury depth, while the thin skin is soft and pleasantly chewy. We preferred it steamed, which allows the natural sweetness of the vegetables and the flavourful filling to shine.
Ku Chye Kueh, $1.80
We’re usually not big fans of chives, but Dawn’s version, which also contains leek, won us over. The filling isn’t overwhelmingly pungent. We recommend getting it pan-fried for a lightly crisp exterior.
Carrot Cake, $1.80 (8 DAYS Pick!)
Our favourite is the carrot cake, which is quite different from the versions commonly served at dim sum restaurants. Instead of white radish, Dawn uses green radish, which is commonly found in yusheng. The result is a cake with more bite and fragrance.
We had ours pan-fried, and enjoyed the contrast between the soft cake and shreds of orange carrot and green radish, which added texture. The savoury hae bee flavour ties everything together beautifully.
Yam Cake, $1.80
At Dawn’s recommendation, we ordered the yam cake pan-fried. The golden brown exterior gives way to soft batter studded with tender yam chunks that still retain a slight bite. Simple and yummy.
Glutinous Rice, $2.40
The fragrant, peppery nuo mi fan is packed with umami flavour, thanks to a generous mix of mushrooms, peanuts, hae bee and crispy shallots. The peanuts remain pleasantly soft rather than mushy.
Glutinous Rice Kueh, $1.80
The same glutinous rice filling is wrapped in a thin, pink chewy skin to form Dawn’s png kueh. She recommends ordering it pan-fried, which adds another layer of flavour and texture. We also like that she goes easy on the colouring, resulting in a softer “Barbie pink” hue rather than the bright shades often seen elsewhere.
Bottom line
Traditional kueh done right. The handmade kueh are thoughtfully prepared, generously filled and reasonably priced, but what stands out most is the amount of heart that goes into every item. Our picks are the steamed soon kueh and fried carrot cake.
We sure hope Dawn manages to find a successor before she eventually retires as it would be a pity to see the business and its delicious handmade kueh disappear.
Cha Dian Teochew Kueh is at #02-135, Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Rd, S069111. Open Mon-Fri, 7.30 am to 2:30 pm. Cha Dian will be closed from Jul 3-16. More info via Instagram.
Photos: Dillon Tan
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