23-Year-Old Restaurant Chef Takes Over Popular Rolina Curry Puff Stall After Hawker Dad Falls Ill
The stall with a sixty-year legacy recently reopened after an eight-month hiatus, with the hawker’s Gen-Z daughter at the helm.
For Jolene Tham, waking up at the crack of dawn is the toughest part of being a hawker. The 23-year-old was thrust into the hawker trade full-time when her father, Bren Tham, 48, who owned Rolina Traditional Hainanese Curry Puff at Tanjong Pagar Food Centre, suddenly fell ill earlier this year and could no longer manage daily operations at the stall. For the past two months, Jolene has been running the stall, which had been on hiatus since January, with the help of her fiance, Kwan Wei Lun, 23. The young couple start their day at 4am, preparing snacks like curry puffs and steamed glutinous rice from scratch.
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