Makansutra - Celebrating Asian food culture and lifestyle

“It looks so staged.” and “Are you sure they are unaware of your ‘sudden’ appearance?”, was some of the accusations levied on us when we went about touting the new concept of my Makansutra Raw show, currently on Channel 5. It is, after all, my seventh series since 2000, and while food shows were rare then, by now, folks don’t just want to be told where to eat as they can get that off the net from their favourite food forum, bloggers and food sites. They want to be entertained, in a manner the goggle box can but Google cannot. These days, local food shows must have a concept that threads through the program which endears to the jaded food show viewers. They have had too many on TV these days, including this new series of mine, done with a promise that we don’t prime nor inform any eatery in advance and just show up with the crew to eat, shoot and leave. Totally unannounced and unscripted.

The basic premise was that, I as a host, should be treated like any other customer, who doesn’t inform the hawkers or chefs when they show up to makan. We may, and had to contend with owner chefs on their day off and a second rate off-day cook. Or, we even had to face stalls that had a shelf full of sold out goodies. Once, a very popular seafood restaurant boss was so miffed by us showing up unannounced that he raised his hands in disbelief and shooed us away in the middle of his very packed coffeeshop. He only relented when I asked simply to eat and shoot his food, review it, pay for the meal and leave. “But don’t interview me or shoot me ok”, his firm retort did not quite come across as a request.

I mulled over the charges stated above and realized that, by today, with the umpteenth local food show making its rounds, the industry and hawkers are very cool towards any TV crew appearing before them. They know just what to do and expect. They have seen it all many times before. Some will even cook a portion for the host and jazz another up for photography. I do at times look like the surprised sucker! Once, after obtaining permission to film in a mall (as we have to make our way to the unsuspecting shop), we were stopped by security as we did not have the “media-pass”. They weren’t amused when we told them we had a “tres-pass”! We somehow found a way through all situations, seemingly raw or not so, including:

Showing up at an ice creamery with an eight man crew and nobody attended to us for a pregnant ten minutes. It reveals that the counter staff was in awe of the situation and hid behind in the kitchen and called her boss, who was out on an errand.

The one-man-show stewed duck stall, who against public expectations decided to close on the day we decided to pounce on him as “I just don’t feel like opening today”. We had to re-plan the next day’s schedule to accommodate the glitch. But his salt water duck on a bed of steamed rice was all worth it the next day.

The owner of a top authentic Japanese restaurant who refused to even see us and as a consolation, sent his right hand local chef assistant to feed us. When I pestered, the assistant dutifully knelt in front of the chef owner’s little office to make another request for an interview on our behalf. He refused as “he was on the line with someone from Japan”. I later reflected that it was just the chef’s disdain for publicity and that they merely wanted the food to do the talking. It did, eloquently.

How I was unsettled by the fact that a top bak chor mee stall in an Ang Mo Kio hawker centre burned down two days after we featured them. I realized that while turnover is high, his margins on the two dollar bowl of noodles are not and it dawned on me the closure is definitely affecting their daily lives.

Trying to prove to a stranger in a queue of a particular char kway teow he is lining up to have for the first time, is indeed better than he believed it was. It was disheartening to later admit my ignorance. The old man hawker was getting on in age and the boldness in the flavour he used to offer, gave way to customers request for lesser oils, sweetness and saltiness. It tasted more, these days, like a well fried breakfast kway teow. But still, he has a long patient line of ignorant char kway teow lovers each day.

Being told by a fried Hokkien mee stall owner not to feature them when we showed up with the camera all a rolling. I was intrigued that a fifty cents fee was levied for all requests of extra sambal. “Chillis are expensive, go figure.” they told me, and I did, at the supermarket nearby. I thought the sambal was expensive, not the chilli. But nevertheless, it did enhance the meal.