After winning a Michelin star and getting roped in to expand his humble hawker stall into a chain of restaurants in Singapore and overseas, life has certainly improved for Chan Hon Meng. But perhaps not as drastically as one might think. Hon Meng, 58, is probably better known as Hawker Chan, or the man behind Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya.
If you are visiting a hawker centre for the first time, how do you decide which chicken rice stall to go for? Is it the photos displayed? How the chicken looks as it is hung up? While that may play some part in our final choice, more often than not, we judge how good a stall is from the length.