Michelin star street food

A gourmet meal that costs less than a cup of coffee? Singapore’s Chan Hon Meng raises street food to an art form.

In a Singapore food stall, Chan Hon Meng cooks food that has seen him awarded a Michelin star two years in a row.

Story Ulf Lippitz

Photography Vanessa Caitlin

6 April, 2018

The weird and wonderful scents of Singapore overwhelm the unsuspecting visitor. In Little India, cumin and cardamom will captivate you. In Gardens by the Bay, you’ll be enchanted by jasmine and lemon trees. And in Chinatown, past the banks’ proud glass towers, you’re greeted by the aroma of raw fish and cooking stalls. Crowds surge in the narrow streets, propelled along by their appetites.

Chinatown Complex is a dominant concrete block that holds an inconspicuous secret: stall number 02-126. In a space measuring four square metres on the second floor, two cooks conjure up their specialty: melt-in-your-mouth chicken in a velvety sauce. It’s the best street food in this Southeast Asian city-state and the cheapest Michelin-starred meal on the planet.

In summer 2016, the Michelin Guide awarded the Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle street food stall a star. Just $2.50 Singapore dollars, buys a gourmet meal here.

“Michelin and my food – how do they go together?” is a question Chan Hon Meng, who opened the stall in 2009 and has been running it ever since, still asks himself. The guide was all about first-class restaurant food, that much the Malaysian-born chef knew, so it had nothing to do with his world. Little wonder that he was flabbergasted to be included among its ranks.

"It’s the best street food in this Southeast Asian city-state and the cheapest Michelin-starred meal on the planet."

"The ability to create sublime products from simple things is a great form of art."

The star has changed remarkably little about the rhythm of his life. He still rises at five each morning, walks 20 minutes from his apartment to the stall in Chinatown, takes delivery of fresh chicken from Malaysia or Indonesia, cleans and cuts it, concocts the sauce according to his secret recipe and finally rattles his shutters open at 10am.

Such discipline applied to street food and the passion for cooking may have convinced the testers to bend a rule. In 2016, for the first time ever, the renowned Michelin Guide awarded stars to not one but two street food stalls. “The ability to create sublime products from simple things is a great form of art,” says Michael Ellis, international director of the Michelin Guides.

Both the star-awarded stalls are located in Singapore, cook Chinese food that costs a tenth of other Michelin- starred establishments’ dishes, and could not care less about fancy decor.

Yet while Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle serves up various cuts of pork in a bowl for about 10 Singapore dollars – liver pounded to delectable tenderness, wontons and meatballs with noodles and the house chilli sauce – Chan asks just a quarter of the price for his authentic chicken dish. It’s the bargain of a lifetime: haute cuisine quality with a hot-dog-stand price tag.

So it doesn’t take a lot of money for locals and tourists alike to get their hands on this legend-steeped chicken. What they do need in abundance, though, is time. These days, the food court at Chinatown Complex looks more like the entrance to some popular New York or London night club, complete with ropes keeping the hopefuls in an orderly line. This morning, 60 hungry street food fans snake slowly past the other stalls, hoping their turn will come in two hours – ‘slow food’ takes on a whole new meaning.

With his one-dish philosophy, Chan Hon Meng is a low-profile star in an industry of supercharged egos. Chan has expanded from one to a little network of stalls, dubbing them simply Hawker Chan because it’s easier to remember than the name of the stand in the complex. Within a single year, he opened two locations in Singapore and one each in Taiwan and Thailand, with Indonesia and the Philippines in the pipeline. He shakes his head, still not quite able to grasp the turn his fate has taken. But success does breed ambition. His dream: “Become number two after Kentucky Fried Chicken.”

Even though he still works from morning till night and lives in the same apartment – Master Chan tries to maintain a low-key lifestyle – many eyes are now upon him. And not just peeking through the windows of his little stall, but from every corner of the culinary universe. They watch as he continues to pursue his happiness. At Guide Michelin, they don’t need to see any more to be convinced of his unwavering skill: This year, Chan holds on to his star.

"Within a single year, he opened two locations in Singapore and one each in Taiwan and Thailand, with Indonesia and the Philippines in the pipeline."

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A gourmet meal that costs less than a cup of coffee? Singapore’s Chan Hon Meng raises street food to an art form.

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