Once An Illegal Immigrant In Italy Who Stole Bread To Survive, Hawker Now Sells Pizza At Bukit Timah Stall

HaPiHa, which means eat-drink-eat in Albanian, opened on August 7 last year, and counts popular stalls like You Peng Noodle Dumpling House and Feng Xiang Bak Kut Teh as neighbours.

Italian music wafts from a speaker as Klevis cheerily greets his regulars. Some come every day: a middle-aged man turns up in the middle of our interview, asking about his wife’s daily kebab order.

“I love food, so I thought: why not open something myself?” the self-taught chef says. “It was a big risk to give up a steady salary, but one that I needed to take to step out from my comfort zone.”

A regular at Beauty World Food Centre, he realised it was missing a pizza and kebab spot, and dropped $55,000 to buy equipment and ingredients.

Klevis was born in the Albanian capital of Tirana, and lost his mother at a young age.

“We didn’t have a warm family. The country was in a civil war, so there was no good future,” he explains of how he and his brother, Orges, snuck on a boat to Venice aged 14. “My father remarried after we left.”

Lacking papers, the teenaged illegal immigrants slept under train tracks to avoid detection.

They were caught by police while stealing bread and cheese from a supermarket, but luckily, the brothers were given places in a Catholic foster house and got to attend school.

Klevis graduated with a diploma in electrical engineering. Orges, now 39, went on to work in shipyards around Italy.

After graduation, Klevis tried engineering and construction jobs before stumbling into his passion for customer service as a restaurant manager, clocking stops at prominent Venetian joints including the historic Ristorante Antico Martini, Trattoria Do Forni, Pier Dickens, wine bar Vino Vino, and now-defunct gelato spot Gelateria Paolin.

The experiences taught him fluent English, and the cooking skills he now uses to feed family and friends. “I was always in the kitchen, asking the chefs how to do this, how to do that,” he says.

But before that, he started from the bottom – cutting bread and washing toilets.

“In Italy, you must earn your job,” he laughs. “Only when someone new comes, then you get promoted.”

It was in Venice that Klevis met his wife, Singapore PR Ali Wong (pictured), 41. The Hong Kong-born, Singapore-based former director of a cruise company was on a business trip there.

Klevis served her table and supplied sightseeing recommendations. “I thought he was very handsome,” she giggles. Sparks flew, and in 2012, Klevis moved to Singapore to be with Ali, who now helps out occasionally at the stall in between her new job running a digital marketing company.

He found work as restaurant manager at Italian joints Ristorante Da Valentino (his longest stint — he was there for two years), Gattopardo Ristorante di Mare, Regent hotel’s Basilico, and most recently Da Paolo Dempsey, which he left in 2021 to start his hawker stall. The couple have a five-year-old son.

“The first month was like hell,” Klevis says of transitioning from an air-conditioned restaurant to a hot hawker kitchen, which he also had to clean himself. Nearly everything he sells is made from scratch, including pizza and pita dough, sauces and baklava.

Thanks to his experience as a restaurant manager, most of his ingredients are upscale products imported from Italy or Turkey, sourced from suppliers that sell to restaurants only.

“The food cost is high but I offset it with the cheaper rental, and a low salary for myself,” he explains. “I don’t use any MSG. I want things to be healthy, good quality, and affordable.”

None of the dishes were inherited from former employers. Instead, Klevis put together a list of his home-cooked hits, drawing from the Mediterranean cuisine of Albania, Greece, Turkey and Italy.

HaPiHa serves 50-100 customers a day, with most orders for takeaway.

“We don’t have massive profits but we are afloat,” shares Klevis candidly.

Among his clientele are Turks, Chinese and European chefs he won’t name, though we spy chef-owner Valentino Valtulina and general manager Alberto Tolari of Ristorante Da Valentino, and Basilico head chef Valerio Pierantonelli on the biz’s Instagram page.

So, what’s the future for this enterprising Albanian with the can-do spirit? For one, he wants a bigger kitchen so he can make yoghurt and filo pastry in-house. Then, he wants to expand the menu, and finally grow his brand into a hawker chain.

Based on the name, we expect something sour and deep-fried like the lemon chicken served at chicken rice stalls, but boy, are we wrong. These lightly browned, oven-baked babies boast just the lightest whisper of citrus, the savoury mid-joint wings veiled in a warm, sticky glaze.

Though Klevis uses frozen bird, you can’t really tell – the meat, marinated three hours in a secret mix including lemon juice, is fall-off-the-bone tender. HaPiHa only sells 50 of these a day, and it’s worth it to go early to get some.

A popular dish among the Balkan nations of Albania, Croatia, Serbia and Greece – and a surprising find for a hawker centre, this dish comprises 160g of lamb kebab on pita.

Klevis chooses lamb leg with “the right percentage of fat”, minces it, marinates it, then blends it with olive oil, parsley and mint to create four oblong, sausage-like patties, browned till done. “We don’t use any breadcrumbs,” he adds.

It’s saltier than expected, but nicely herby, and moist enough. We like that the meat is not gamey – most should find it acceptable, even those who don’t usually eat lamb.

A hot favourite, this familiar option has a loyal following. Klevis marinates chicken thighs for 24 hours in a mix of Greek yoghurt, oregano, salt and olive oil, which imparts savoriness and makes them juicy without being oily. After prep, the bird’s rotated on the gyro machine for 2.5 hours till golden brown, resulting in a herbaceous, slightly salty meat that’s folded in a 12-inch wrap with freshly cut veg and some of that luscious homemade tzatziki. It’s a big portion.

“How can I ever eat other kebab wraps after this one?” our photographer sighs, and we agree. It’s fresh, yummy, light, and just so easy to take bite after soft bite. Yes, one can eat this daily. Our only complaint? Given how lean the pork and lamb options are, we wish they would have done away with the chicken skin.

Klevis’ pinkish tirokafteri – or spicy feta cheese spread – employs a mix of cheese from Turkey, Greek yoghurt, fresh roasted red peppers blended to a paste, fresh garlic, ground cayenne pepper, and extra virgin olive oil imported from Italy. The good quality oil is smooth and fragrant, though the resulting 100g cup of sour, spicy dip might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

As for the cut-up triangles of pita, they’re thicker than is typical and resemble focaccia bread. A pity they aren’t airy, but doughy. Made of premium Italian flour and Turkish honey, it’s a nice rustic bake, but we prefer the flat variety.

Made with chickpeas from Italy, garlic, tahini (sesame seed paste) from Turkey and more of that lovely olive oil, the 100g cup of hummus is smooth and light. It’s a little tame though – more lemon would give it character.

A well-loved Greek skewer dish, some may find the pork loin Klevis uses too lean, but we appreciate it. Marinated 24 hours in extra virgin olive oil and oregano, then grilled, the result is eight cubes of seared pig that involve quite a jaw workout to eat, but release savoury, yummy juices with each chew. On the side is cooling, tangy tzatziki (Greek yoghurt and cucumber sauce), and chopped salad that tastes freshly cut.

Each 6-inch pizza yields 4 slices, and the larger 9-inch option (pictured) gives 8 slices.

The dough recipe, which uses honey and Italian flour, comes from Klevis’ old roommate in Venice (who has since gone on to open his own restaurant in Spain). Though it has a lovely sandy texture from the use of semolina flour, it lacks char. When we mention this, the boss says he turned down the oven heat after customers asked for a soft crust, but can turn it back up if requested.

The pizza filling is aromatic and tasty, though not creamy. Instead, it’s a touch sour from the addition of lemon juice to imported Italian truffle paste, and fragrant from liberal amounts of truffle oil.

On the same pizza base is a generous scattering of salty Parma ham (the premium stuff, aged 18 months), parmigiano reggiano cheese, fior di latte mozzarella, and sweet baby rocket leaves that aren’t too peppery. We love the rounded, chunky taste of the imported tomato sauce.

Other options cost less. The most affordable pizza is the Margherita at $6.70 for a 6-inch and $10.70 for a 9 inch, followed by Hawaiian ($8.70, $13.70), Diavola ($9.70, $14.70) and Quattro Stagioni ($9.70, $14.70).

It’s pricey for a hawker centre, and though the ingredients are high quality, we’ve had better pies elsewhere (sorry).

Less sugary than the typical rendition, and made with Turkish filo pastry and Turkish honey. Caramelly, and surprisingly addictive.

With Italian, Greek and Turkish fare on offer, HaPiHa’s menu seems a bit wide-ranging and confusing, but most items taste good and portions are decent, though the pizzas are on the small side (also, ask for more char on the crust). Prices are high for a hawker centre, but not unfair considering the imported ingredients and made-from-scratch dishes. Plus, there’s a homemade taste to the yummy, clean-tasting food here that’s not unlike dining at a Mediterranean grandma’s home.

Hapiha Mediterranean Fast Food is at #04-55, 144 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Beauty World Center, S588177. Open Tues - Sun, 11am - 9pm. More info on Facebook and Instagram.

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Photos: Alvin Teo