Tour Guide-Turned-SDA Becomes Carrot Cake Hawker, Sells Indian-Inspired Masala Chai Tow Kway
A plate of regular chai tow kway at 333 Carrot Cake starts from $3.
333 Carrot Cake Montage 4
Desmond Wee, 52, was a freelance tour guide who spent the last 25 years showing tourists the sights Singapore has to offer. His most memorable clients? The players from famed football club Tottenham Hotspur, along with rival football club Arsenal's former coach, Arsene Wenger.
That all changed when the pandemic hit. “My calendar in 2019 was full. My calendar for 2020 was full, actually, but in a span of two weeks, everything crumbled,” Desmond recalls. Like many others, he was forced to pivot to earn a living – first as a Safe Distancing Ambassador (SDA) for nine months, then a hawker as part of the National Environment Agency’s Hawkers’ Development Programme.
Last October, he opened the simply named 333 Carrot Cake in a corner stall (which he shares with a chee cheong fun hawker) at breezy 80 Circuit Road Market & Food Centre, where he hawks chai tow kway starting from $3 a plate. Apart from the usual black, white and ‘yuan yang’ (a mix of black and white carrot cake) versions, he offers an unorthodox twist on the breakfast staple: chai tow kway spiked with masala spices and curry leaves.
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Tour guide, SDA, hawker
Having spent half his life as a tour guide, he has met plenty of interesting clients – including his “favourite soccer team, Tottenham Hotspur”; Desmond proudly shows off selfies with players Harry Kane (pictured above) and Son Heung-Min, as well as Arsene Wenger (now international football association FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development). He also had the chance to show the International Olympic Committee around when they were scouting for a location to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.
After the pandemic hit. Desmond found himself in a different sector of tourism – enforcing safe distancing measures at hotels in Orchard, Little India and Geylang as an SDA. This included patrolling facilities and making sure guests checking in were socially distanced, especially once staycations ramped up. He also had to “peep into” ballrooms once weddings were back on. Thankfully, he never faced any problems during his nine-month stint as an SDA. “I knew most of the hotel staff after being a tour guide for so long, so they were very cooperative and nice. It’s just that I got a little bored working as a safe distancing ambassador,” he shares. Was he like one of those now-viral ambassadors who used measuring tapes to ensure tables are well spaced apart at restaurants? “Nope,” he says. “I can roughly gauge the one-meter distance [just by looking]”.
Joined NEA’s hawker programme
Thereafter, he moved on from the role and started taking government-funded courses to improve his computer and photography skills. “But I didn’t like what I was doing. I’m in my 50s, I thought there was really no point studying so much when I should be building up for retirement,” he explains. “It’s also tough to work for others after [freelancing for] so long.”
“I have always wanted to be a “small” boss for myself and learn a skill without burning a hole in my pocket, so I decided to venture into the hawker business. And I also wanted to keep hawker culture alive after telling so many tourists [about UNESCO’s nod to the value of Singapore’s hawker culture],” he shares.
He signed up for the Hawkers’ Development Programme, where he decided to learn how to cook carrot cake after seeing Guan Seng Carrot Cake listed as one of the mentors. He was taken under the wing of Ng Kim Guan, the hawker behind the stall in Telok Blangah Crescent Market & Food Centre (where it’s been since the ’90s).
“You know these old-time hawkers. They like to keep everything under their hat at first, then slowly reveal [their secrets] when they see that you’re serious about this,” he shares with a laugh. “I really have to thank them for all the guidance and knowledge during my time with them.”
Tough times, slim margins
It cost the hawker just $10K to set up his stall – which he named 333 Carrot Cake just ’cos it’s easy to remember – in 80 Circuit Road Market & Food Centre, which he says is frequented by “early birds”. “I wake up at 3.30am every morning, and reach the stall around 4.30am to do prep work. When I finish setting up at 5.45am, there’s usually a few old folks already waiting to buy a plate,” says Desmond, who cooks the carrot cake while a stall assistant takes orders.
He sells around 100 to 120 plates on a good day, usually closing shop just after noon. “There’s hardly any activity [at the hawker centre] after 12pm. That’s why I chose this hawker centre – I value my ‘me time’. When I finish washing up by around 2pm, I’ve got time to go for a run or cook dinner for my family,” explains the father-of-two.
Like other hawkers though, he’s been hit hard by inflation: “Margins are very slim now. It’s scary because oil and eggs have skyrocketed by around 20 percent, and I don’t want to increase prices because in my area, residents are very price sensitive,” he explains. “I’ll look at the next two weeks to see if I need to increase prices, but they will stay the same for the moment.
Still, the hawker is heartened by recent news that the maximum group size of people dining in together at F&B outlets where checks are implemented (including hawker centres) will be doubled from five to ten from March 29. “Overall, it’s great news for everyone. I would say it’s not going to make much difference [for the crowd at our hawker centre] because many other places are also opening up so there will be a lot of choices,” Desmond says. “But at least now extended families can dine together.”
He hasn’t given up on working as a tour guide
So how has the transition been from tour guide to SDA, then hawker? “I knew that it was never easy being a hawker, but now that I’m [working as one], waking up early and working for long hours in a completely different environment compared to my tour guide days, it’s really tough,” he says with a laugh. “Of course, both [being a] tour guide and hawker have their enjoyable parts – I get the same satisfaction seeing my carrot cake liked and appreciated as serving tourists well.”
With the relaxation of travel rules (vaccinated travellers can enter Singapore without quarantine from April 1 without the need for VTL flights or on-arrival ART tests), Desmond hopes to split his time between 333 Carrot Cake and working as a tour guide. “I’ve chosen to embark on the hawker path, so I’ll stick to my hawker business for the next few years and still hold my guide license to do jobs whenever the timing fits. But for the rest of my tour guide colleagues, it’s a total relief for them ’cos they’ve been waiting [for things to open up] for a long time.”
He currently does around four tours a month on his off days, and hopes that more jobs will come in from travel agents soon. “In fact, maybe I can bring [tourists] to my stall soon,” he quips.
White Carrot Cake, $3
Desmond tells us that the carrot cake he serves isn’t too far from his chai tow kway shifu’s: rustic, chunky rectangles of supplier-bought steamed radish cake interspersed with ribbons of fried egg and sweet-salty chai poh (preserved radish), instead of the neater, omelette-like carrot cake you get at some stalls.
While there’s an alluring interplay between the textures of crisp-edged radish cake against its mushier interior, we find some of the bigger slices a bit bland, since the savouriness from the accompanying fish sauce and chai poh doesn’t penetrate within. If you like chilli with your chai tow kway, Desmond’s, which is stir-fried into the kway, is worth a go – we dig the heady fragrance of hae bee, garlic and shallots. Overall, not bad considering the hawker’s only been at it for around four months.
Black Carrot Cake, $3 (8 DAYS Pick!)
We prefer the black carrot cake – the hawker applies a good amount of luscious sweet dark soy sauce on our plate of carrot cake as he fries it, yielding a nicely caramelised, sweet-savoury mess. It also helped that the chunks of kway were chopped a little finer in this version, which meant more surface area coated with that yummy sauce.
Masala Carrot Cake, $3.50
“After many years dealing with Indian tourists, it gave me the idea for some sort of Indian fusion carrot cake that locals can accept,” explains Desmond on his thought process behind the dish. Though the hawker tells us that the reception to his masala carrot cake has been lukewarm, we think it’s a pretty decent fusion pairing. The garam masala (a blend of ground spices including cumin, cinnamon and peppercorn) and curry leaves add a layer of spicy, earthy undertones and fragrance to the plate that’s quite enjoyable. The spice mixture also doesn’t overwhelm the chilli or chai poh. Worth a try.
Bottom line
Even though this hawker is pretty new to the job, his carrot cake is comforting and a viable breakfast choice if you’re in the area. While we’re quite fond of the sweet-savoury black version here, the unique and aromatic masala chai tow kway is also worth a taste if you have the stomach space.
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