I felt I just needed to exercise this slow and deliberate ritual of snaking through the Chinatown man-jam this week. It was a while since I had to endure the body pong mixed with grilled meats, fried something, flowers, steamed snacks with lotus leaf this and pandan that, with a hint of mandarin oranges and waxed meat in the air – just so I can go jostle about and buy what I don’t have in mind and see what the new year has brought to town and note what oldies has gone away (remember the ang-pow outfitted Hello Kitty dolls- gone!). In short, yeah, I don’t have a clue why I want to go get ruffled up in the bustling Chinatown crowd this festive season. You see, very often, we need very little to get by a big Chinese New Year celebration. They key thing we all need is a warm and clean home, harmony in the family, some snacks and a fairly well stocked up fridge for that week, some ang pows to distribute and of course, a few boxes of that “market price” ubiquitious bak kwa (if it was a bank product, it will cost at least $288 per kilogram now, minus administration fee, interests and inflation).

There was this loud vendor extolling “I will give discount and extra, boss order me one, even if he no give order , I will give extra also. I will give till it hurts.” , as he offered free fruit konyaku jelly samples. I suspect he meant throwing in an extra five pieces to every ten you bought and then offer a discount for the fifteen – which meant you will buy ten at no discount and it covered the cost of his five freebies. All this while, all I could smell as I leered at the temptingly colourful jellies, was wax duck meat, coming from the stall next door (or was it Erich’sausage stand opposite grilling his farmer’s cheese bratwurst). I felt an affinity to the grilled sotong in spicy Szechuan pepper sauce sold nearby – like a hot blur-sotong in Chinatown wondering, among others, what the casino operators were doing with a huge booth there.

Then I moseyed into the hawker center and all sanity was restored. At least six hawker stalls were staring at me with huge “$13.80 Lo Hei Salad” posters. And it looked good. All I needed was to order a super prawn dish from one stall, a steamed fish from another, a sea cucumber stew at that corner, an oyster omelet from nearby, fried noodles at the other end and har cheong kai (prawn paste chicken) from the cze cha stall at the entrance, and viola- my meaningful Chinese New Year meal on a decent budget with a truly local accent. All washed down with a fruitfully correct mandarin orange juice ice blend.

Self taught Benson wok-king on one of my favourites there-
the coconut milk prawns

But heck, I realized I did not need to pop all over the hawker centre for this meal. I just had to bother Benson Tong. He is a young ex-navy soldier who decided he wanted to cook for living after his national service. This self taught chef whipped up one of the best fried coconut milk prawns I have ever had. The hints of condensed milk and a special chilli powder with sugar and curry leaves in it was crazy love- not a totally sane combination but so easy to like.

At $12 for about 4 pieces, these huge crustaceans are reduced perfectly in coconut and condensed milk with spices.

He appeared in some Chinese reality local food television show and won the approval of the celebrity judges, among whom as the renowned Chef Huang Jing Biao. Benson is the only cook who touts the famous steam fish head in the hawker centre for an infamous $15, two more than everyone else. “I had to be brave and leverage on the television show exposure and my short training stint with my sifu Huang Jing Biao.” His fish head was exceptionally fresh and the sweetish chilli-garlic sauce it came in was pleasant but not much to write home to about. I especially like the crispy fried white bait (which he named fried silver fish, as in the creepy crawlies which eats up your old books hidden in dank cupboards) which has a almost spicy, cheesy like dust coat, the perfect beer foil. He even offers a rare, for a hawker stall, ho si fatt choy or the very auspicious dried oyster, black moss and mushroom stew in fermented tofu sauce. “People come to this hawker centre for the usual famous stalls. I have to be loud, daring and bold and ride on this fame he achieved on television.” It worked, as he believes that the heartland crowds that throng the place thrive on such hype.

Beer food par excellence- deep fried white bait with a savoury spicy coat.

Well, Benson, you don’t need hype. Your makan speaks for itself and the aftertaste it leaves in your customer’s palate will be converted into viral marketing efforts. Besides, not many hawkers will dare offer Pun Choy at $68 for this Chinese New Year, but you did, and I am sure it will do well.