SINGAPORE: A recent social media post in which the author claimed to have seen only foreign workers at a food court in Singapore received a lot of attention, though netizens who commented said they were not really surprised.
Some even shared similar experiences, which led the post author to lament the loss of authentic Singaporean food.
“Went to foodcourt, saw Myanmar worker cooking China food, a China lady cooking Malaysia wanton noodles. The only authentic one is (a) Malay selling Nasi Lemak and Nasi Padang. What happened to the local Singapore workers? Sigh…… #singapore #jobless,” the Aug 12 post on Threads reads.
In response, one commenter shared about an incident when they went to a food court to order Ayam Penyet (spiced deep-fried chicken). They wrote that when they ordered in Melayu, the female stall attendant did not understand, nor did she speak any English, but “insisted I order in Mandarin.”
Out of frustration, the commenter told the Malay people in the queue behind them to boycott the stall.
Another shared about an incident when he ordered Char Kway Teow for his wife from Cantine Pasir Ris, and added that he believed a foreign worker had cooked the dish,
“My wife took 2 spoonfuls and stopped. And after that we stick to halal tzechar from our regular shops like Hawa, Rex, Tang Tea House and enak2,” he wrote.
The post author replied, “That’s exactly what I meant.”
“Noooooo we were hoping Singapore maintains the hawker stalls,” a commenter wrote.
Some Threads users chimed in to say that the same is happening with restaurants in Johor Bahru, where many cooks and servers now come from other Asian countries.
Many commenters, however, said that they are hardly surprised that few Singaporeans want to take these types of jobs at all, since they generally do not pay high salaries.
“These jobs can’t pay BTO,” one remarked bluntly.
“They only want to pay $1800 for a 6-day shift job in the world’s most expensive country,” commented another.
“Most local Singaporean locals won’t work at hawker stalls! Too hard work n too little $$! Would you work at a hawker stall yourself??” a third chimed in.
Another pointed out: “Aside from the young hawkers, you will find it hard to have any Singaporeans who aspire to stand on their feet 10 – 12 hours a day, sometimes behind heat with no air con and no time to take a break, other times having to deal with other entitled Singaporeans who think their money is the biggest in the world and overpaying for whatever they are eating. And don’t get me started on high rents, high food costs, and paying a decent wage without passing the same costs to customers.” /TISG
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