All Day Dimsum

A dimsum/jiao zi store at a hawker centre is a welcome if unusual find at the hawker centre. The new kid on the block is You Peng Fresh Mian Jiao Zi Guan.

The store stands out from the usual suspects in the hawker centre: a row of orange lights hang like a fringe at the store front. Six men in uniform - smart white top over black pants - work with quiet efficiency taking orders, making the dumplings, cooking and serving up the food.

The menu is limited to jiaozi, wo tieh, xiaolongbao and la mian.

On a quiet night, when all I want is a small order of dumplings to go with a bowl of hawker-style noodles, this store will do very nicely...

You Peng Fresh Mian Jiao Zi Guan is located at
144 Upper Bukit Timah Road,
Beauty World Centre #04-23
Tel: 64635608, 92391598

Business hrs: Everyday 10:30am to 9.00pm

The peidu mama

We have been buying our papayas from the same vendor for some time now. In the beginning, he manned the stall himself. Then, for a while there, he was helped by a woman we presumed was his wife.

We got asked by the other stall vendors: "You buy your fruits from that peidu mama?" Well, yes. Was there a point to their line of questioning? If there was, we ignored them.

The woman always wore make-up. Her hair was always done up in some fashion and she has a flair to her dress sense. She was also always helpful and she was obliging of fussy customers poking and prodding the produce. She even helped us with the ingredient-mix and wrapping technique when we were on our jiao zi making craze. We liked the woman; she added a cheeriness to the market place.

Then we noticed she was not at the stall for several days in a row. We asked the papaya seller if his wife no longer came to help at the stall. He let on that he he had no idea what she was up to. She had taken a job doing facials but would not tell him where. The work conditions are 12 hour days, no days off, no base pay.

We were stunned. We felt badly for the man - he sounded pissed off and sad at the same time. Worst of all, while intellectually we are fully aware we don't know anything more about the situation, we felt all our prejudices and suspicions towards all women from the mainland come flooding back.