'Dancing' char kway teow hawker maintains price of dish at $3.50 despite rising costs

Those who frequent Circuit Road Hawker Centre would probably have come across Chee Wei Liang, the owner of Dancing Char Kway Teow. 

And as the stall's name implies, this agile 69-year-old uncle actually dances as he cooks. 

While the elderly hawker has every reason to up these prices due to inflation, he refuses to do so, reported Shin Min Daily News. 

A plate of his char kway teow continues to be priced at an affordable $3.50. 

This is despite costs of one of his key ingredients — cockles — increasing by 20 per cent.

Wei Liang told the Chinese daily that he intentionally kept prices low for elderly folk in the MacPherson area. 

He worries that raising prices would affect them financially and hopes to help them by keeping his menu items affordable. 

Unlike other char kway teow hawkers, Wei Liang also gives diners the unusual option of adding a soft-boiled egg, which costs an extra 50 cents, with their char kway teow.

He was inspired to do so after trying 'moonlight' fried kway teow in Malaysia which sees the dish topped with a raw egg, as well as the traditional local breakfast of half-boiled eggs that people usually enjoy with kaya toast. 

But getting the eggs right took some trial and error.

"I tried cooking about a hundred eggs to get the texture and taste I wanted," he told Shin Min Daily News. 

He dances to stay active 

Before becoming the hawker that he is today, Wei Liang owned a car repair shop. 

He told Shin Min that his father owned a char kway teow stall and when he retired 15 years ago, he took over the business as he did not want his father's skills to be lost.

However, his father only told him what ingredients were to be used, so it took him two to three years to perfect frying up the dish. 

Wei Liang has since tweaked the recipe to exclude the use of pork and lard. 

"My hope is that more people can come and try it; not using lard also makes the dish less greasy," he explained. 

The sprightly hawker soon captured attention for shimmying around his stall as he cooked, which led customers to assume he was dancing to music played in his stall.

But there's a more practical reasoning for his constant movement.

Wei Liang told Shin Min Daily News that he moves about to stay active. 

"I initially didn't realise that I was dancing. I usually stand upright a lot at work and if I keep doing so, my joints start to hurt. So I picked up this habit while frying," he revealed. 

Apart from keeping his joints nimble while working, Wei Liang shared that in his free time, he would go to the stadium to exercise. 

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melissateo@asiaone.com