Oct 17, 2024
Popular handmade fishball noodle stall Teck Hin Fishball Noodle has found a new home, and hopefully a permanent one this time round.
The business, which has been in operation for 49 years, is helmed by elderly couple Tan Hay Yam and his wife, with the 75-year-old man still insisting on handmaking the fishballs from scratch.
Their new stall is located at Block 159 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4 and opens today (Oct 16), the couple's daughter Eugenia Lim told AsiaOne.
However, it is currently in a soft-launch phase with some minor kinks to work out.
"The signage of the stall is not yet updated [and won't be for] the next two weeks or so as I am doing the food photography [of the menu items]," said Eugenia, 46, who has been helping her parents manage the backend parts of the business.
In our previous conversation with Eugenia, a homemaker with her own online baking business, she had told us how her parents had relocated the stall three times from their original location at Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre, where they'd been situated since 2019.
They were forced to move out as the hawker centre is slated for demolition this year.
Unfortunately for the elderly couple, their path to finding a new place had been far from smooth.
They relocated their stall to Commonwealth, then to Toa Payoh and finally to their previous location at Yishun, which shuttered in August.
The reasons were mostly related to poor business due to low footfall, said Eugenia.
At the Toa Payoh location, for example, the couple had only opened the stall for three days before making the decision to close as their "daily sales were only $100", she explained. The amount was not enough to cover the cost of ingredients, much less the rent.
She estimated that since last December, their total losses have amounted to at least $25,000.
Eugenia shared how her parents have "depleted their savings" and are worried for their livelihood as they can't afford to retire.
On how they landed at Ang Mo Kio, Eugenia told AsiaOne on Tuesday that two coffeeshop owners at Admiralty and Ang Mo Kio had kindly extended offers to them following the closure of the Yishun stall and the publicity it generated.
"After negotiating the terms with both, each owner agreed to provide us with a lower rental rate to facilitate our start," said Eugenia.
But after "carefully weighing the pros and cons", they decided on the Ang Mo Kio location due to cost factors and the more accessible location.
"The coffeeshop owner had already arranged a noodle station, saving us the expense of custom-building one. Additionally, the Ang Mo Kio site offers excellent accessibility, being close to Mayflower MRT station," said Eugenia, before adding how they are "truly grateful" to the two coffeeshop owners for their offers.
While Eugenia had previously groused about how her dad has refused to cut corners, choosing to handmake the fishballs and fishcakes despite his advanced age, she shared that he will continue to do so.
There will be some price adjustments made, however, with a bowl of noodles now at $5 and $6 for the large size.
"Once the business stabilises after our official opening in November, I plan to introduce a few additional savoury dishes," she added.
There are hopes, too, that the Ang Mo Kio coffeeshop will be the stall's final location.
Said Eugenia: "I have invested quite heavily in the current stall, this will be the last one."
For now, Teck Hin Fishball Noodle will open daily from 7am to 3pm, or "until the fishballs run out".
In a Facebook post announcing their "soft opening", they noted that the temporary signage currently shows "Dim Sum", and that customers can look out for "grumpy Uncle and naggy Auntie".
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Address: Teck Hin Fishball Noodle, Food Tyrant Coffeeshop, Blk 159 Ang Mo Kio Ave 4, #01-526, Singapore 560159
Opening hours: 7am to 3pm daily
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