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Hong Seng Curry Rice: Traditional Hainanese Curry Rice Served in Fast Food Concept

On the contrary to some belief, Hainanese curry rice did not originate from Hainan island. Based on information collected from various sources, it was developed by the Hainanese people in Singapore during the colonial days of Singapore.

January 5, 20213764 views0

The prominent signature of an authentic Hainanese style curry rice is steamed white rice as a base on a plate, with the four main ingredients of fried pork chop, curry chicken, braised pork, and braised cabbage. The whole dish will be then drizzled generously with a hefty serving of curry that is slightly sweet, and not too spicy.

Over time, many variations of this popular meal have appeared. Nowadays, they are most often served in hawker centres and coffee shops in a mixed rice style: with tons of different dishes displayed for your choosing.

Hainanese curry rice in the modern world

Alex Lim, the 3rd generation owner of his family’s Hainanese curry rice business, brought up the idea of modernising Hainanese curry rice.

One of the main challenges faced by Alex when he took over the business was reducing food wastage. This wastage came about in how they had traditionally been serving their customers. To create a lovely presentation, they had to cook many dishes that will be displayed openly. Customers love seeing this vast display of freshly cooked food they can choose from.

However, the challenge comes when everything starts looking aged after 3 to 4 hours. They had to then throw away the food and cook a new batch. This resulted in a lot of food wastage.

To reduce the amount of food wastage, Alex decided to modernise.

How?

By introducing set meals.

He believes that with set meals, they only have to prepare what the customers order without displaying the food in the open by having set meals. This, in turn, will allow them to cook in smaller batches, and significantly reduce the amount of food wastage.

Modernisation at the SMU Outlet

In the SMU outlet, the “set meal” concept was widely accepted by the younger crowd of students and professionals. 

As part of the modernisation process, brown rice, har cheong gai, and salmon mentaiko were introduced along with the set meals. Dishes that were not traditionally associated with Hainanese Curry Rice.

Next, they introduced an ordering system that allowed customers to order and pay through mobile devices and an ordering kiosk. This allowed their staff to be able to concentrate on preparing the food, which significantly increased their efficiency. This digitisation process was widely accepted by consumers in their SMU outlet.

Alex believed that their SMU success was due partly to how the fast-food industry has successfully implemented the self-ordering kiosks.

Through this implementation, people’s behaviour has started changing and are more ready to accept and even prefer to order food through such methods.

Alex then demonstrates how one can order through a mobile device and the kiosk. I then realised the ‘modernisation’ that Alex was talking about is having traditional food served in a fast-food concept.

Traditional food served in a fast-food concept?

Don’t get me wrong. The fast-food concept here doesn’t mean food cooked less healthily, often associated with how food is prepared in the fast-food industry.

What fast-food concept means to Alex is enhancing efficiency while reducing food waste, and still serving high quality, delicious food. It also means a continuous development of modern fusion dishes to pair with the traditional form of curry rice.

Come to think of it, that’s precisely the spirit behind this dish, isn’t it?

Taking the best food of different cultures and infusing it to come up with something even better. The rice with pork chop, chap chye, braised pork, and curry, is a union of some of the best tastes from different cultures.

So, are all customers of Hong Seng open to accepting such modernisation? Well… Yes and No.

Their attempts to take the success of SMU’s modernisation initiatives to their Bedok neighbourhood has been challenging. Acceptance of their popular meal in a fast-food concept has been low. Many heartland customers still prefer the dishes to be displayed and served like how it used to be.

Alex puts it down to consumers preferences from different customer types. The city crowd, generally the young students, and working professionals, appreciate the time savings brought about by the modernisation and its novelty factor. However, with a significant makeup of older consumers, the heartland crowd still prefers their favourite food served traditionally.

Modernising to keep traditional food alive

Personally, I like the idea of Hainanese curry rice served as a set meal, as long as it tastes good (of course). 

On the other hand, foods that bring back memories are priceless. I cannot deny the importance of a food’s sentimental value served the way people remember it. Sentimental memories trigger powerful emotions that are especially important and meaningful to many, especially in an era where things are always evolving at breakneck speed. 

So, what does Alex think about this?

Well, he still hopes that more people will eventually be open to having traditional food served in a fast-food concept. He feels that it is essential for the dish to survive.

“On my journey of modernising this traditional food, there will be people who don’t believe in this. And those who will doubt if this will work. But as a third-generation hawker, this is something that I want to do for the future. If not, slowly, Hainanese curry will just phase out.” – Alex Lim.

In an ever-changing world, every generation will face challenges unique to their own. Entrepreneurs and business owners have to innovate continuously to keep up with the pace of changing expectations.

Sometimes, business owners will be ahead of the curve and need time for their ideas to be accepted, and sometimes, they will be behind and will have some catching up to do.

As a sentimental business owner myself, I definitely support Alex’s vision. And I applaud his efforts in finding ways to keep this delicious traditional dish, that started out as a modern fusion in its time, alive.