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Woks of Taste located at Upper Boon Keng Market & Food Centre was helmed by 25-year-old Samuel Chiang, who was halfway through an aerospace engineering degree when he gave it up to chase his dream of cooking professionally. Unfortunately, the char kway teow stall has shut down with effect from 1 Jun 2023.
According to its official Facebook and Instagram pages, the young hawker is planning to continue his studies and also wants to pursue other areas of interest. Samuel thanked everyone for all the words of encouragement, compliments and feedback he has received since the stall opened on 1 Apr 2022.
He also mentioned that he wants to conduct workshops in the future to educate the next generation of hawkers to fry char kway teow. By doing this, he hopes to preserve both the hawker culture and this classic dish.
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Woks of Taste started out selling plates of the stir-fried flat noodles for S$3, S$4 and S$5 and later on changed it to S$3.50 and S$4.50. If you disliked the dark soy sauce, you could even request for the white version.
Many netizens who were loyal supporters of the stall were sad that they won’t be able to enjoy his char kway teow anymore. Many of them left motivational comments on his Facebook page.
A few others (like myself) regretted not having a chance to patronise the stall while it was still around Ironically, I have a tasting at the same hawker centre this month and wanted to see how good his char kway teow was.
Working in the hawker business is definitely not an easy feat; long hours, cramped spaces and hot conditions, all while standing on your feet the whole day. I worked in a hotel kitchen as a chef myself and found even that environment physically demanding.
So, what happened? That remains a mystery. Samuel didn’t give a reason for the closure but did mention that his passion for cooking burns on as strongly as before. Whatever the reason, we wish him all the best in his future.
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