<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Paid millions to jiat liao bee and learn French cooking, but no time to check on hawkers? What gives?
Filthy hawker habits must be checked
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I AM saddened by yesterday's report, 'Woman dies in mass food poisoning case', of how a customer died and another miscarried after eating at a famous Indian rojak stall in Geylang Serai.
I hope food stall operators will stop the practice of selling unsold food over a few days. Allow me to describe what I have seen Indian rojak and prata stall operators doing over many years.
After lunch, prata stall operators can often be seen scraping the dried gravy stuck to the sides of their huge pots back into the gravy.
They add more water, and at times more spices, then reheat it so that they need not cook another pot to last until the end of the day.
As for Indian rojak stallholders, they are fond of reheating or repeatedly frying unsold items left over from previous days. The bean curd and potato sometimes smell sourish - an indication that the food is not fresh.
Often, to camouflage the stale food, these operators are generous with chopped onions and green chillies. They also add water to their gravy like some prata stallholders.
These unhygienic practices are often carried out during off-peak periods.
Unlike restaurants and bigger establishments, hawker centres do not have kitchens with doors, so these filthy practices can be observed if one wants to.
Are such unhygienic practices also carried out by other food establishments that have kitchens hidden away from the public eye?
Perhaps the authorities could carry out impromptu checks on food samples every month, and not only after episodes when the operators are found guilty.
Do not merely suspend the operator's licence but revoke it.
I also suggest that errant stallholders be made to pay a hefty compensation to victims in non-fatal cases, and even much more to those who have lost loved ones.
Paul Antony Fernandez
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Geylang Serai centre
'Appallingly unhygienic.' MS KHOO CHENG YIN: 'When news reports started coming in about the mass food poisoning of customers who had eaten at a famous Indian rojak stall in Geylang Serai, it brought back memories of my visit to the same stall a few years ago. I visited the stall after reading rave reviews about its fare. But what remains etched in my memory is not the food, but the appallingly unhygienic condition of the entire market and hawker centre. I spotted two fat rats scurrying around the stall and no one seemed to mind.'
Filthy hawker habits must be checked
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I AM saddened by yesterday's report, 'Woman dies in mass food poisoning case', of how a customer died and another miscarried after eating at a famous Indian rojak stall in Geylang Serai.
I hope food stall operators will stop the practice of selling unsold food over a few days. Allow me to describe what I have seen Indian rojak and prata stall operators doing over many years.
After lunch, prata stall operators can often be seen scraping the dried gravy stuck to the sides of their huge pots back into the gravy.
They add more water, and at times more spices, then reheat it so that they need not cook another pot to last until the end of the day.
As for Indian rojak stallholders, they are fond of reheating or repeatedly frying unsold items left over from previous days. The bean curd and potato sometimes smell sourish - an indication that the food is not fresh.
Often, to camouflage the stale food, these operators are generous with chopped onions and green chillies. They also add water to their gravy like some prata stallholders.
These unhygienic practices are often carried out during off-peak periods.
Unlike restaurants and bigger establishments, hawker centres do not have kitchens with doors, so these filthy practices can be observed if one wants to.
Are such unhygienic practices also carried out by other food establishments that have kitchens hidden away from the public eye?
Perhaps the authorities could carry out impromptu checks on food samples every month, and not only after episodes when the operators are found guilty.
Do not merely suspend the operator's licence but revoke it.
I also suggest that errant stallholders be made to pay a hefty compensation to victims in non-fatal cases, and even much more to those who have lost loved ones.
Paul Antony Fernandez
<HR width="50%" SIZE=1>
Geylang Serai centre
'Appallingly unhygienic.' MS KHOO CHENG YIN: 'When news reports started coming in about the mass food poisoning of customers who had eaten at a famous Indian rojak stall in Geylang Serai, it brought back memories of my visit to the same stall a few years ago. I visited the stall after reading rave reviews about its fare. But what remains etched in my memory is not the food, but the appallingly unhygienic condition of the entire market and hawker centre. I spotted two fat rats scurrying around the stall and no one seemed to mind.'
