A man recently had to pay S$14 for a plate of mixed vegetable rice purchased from a hawker centre in Ang Mo Kio.
Speaking to Shin Min Daily News, he shared that his meal consisted of green beans, bean sprouts, an omelette and a piece of fish.
Staff at the stall attributed the high price to costly ingredients.
Shin Min Daily News reports that the customer, 55-year-old Mr Chen, went to Mayflower Market and Food Centre at Block 162, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4 at about 12pm on Friday (5 April).
Mr Chen approached a stall and purchased rice alongside fried fish, green beans, bean sprouts and a fried egg omelette and was about to pay S$10.
He was then told that the price was S$14.
Noting the long queue of patrons behind him, Mr Chen paid the full amount without arguing.
After finishing his meal, he returned to the stall to clarify the pricing with its employee.
“She first said that the price of green beans was relatively expensive,” Mr Chen said. “Then she said that the price of fish was S$8, and each dish of green beans, bean sprouts and fried eggs was S$2.”
However, Mr Chen felt that this was expensive, especially as his meal contained no meat.
He added that as he frequently ordered meat or fish, he was familiar with the pricing.
Mr Chen cited an instance when he paid S$10 for a similar meal of mixed vegetable rice with whole fish.
“I think the problem is that the prices are not marked,” he said.
“In fact, many mixed vegetable stalls are like this. The vendors may have raised the prices of other dishes because they saw that I had taken the fish.”
Reporters from Shin Min Daily News visited the stall on Saturday (6 April) morning. The employee manning the stall, Ms Cai, confirmed the encounter between her and Mr Chen.
She added that he did not raise any concerns whilst paying for the meal and only clarified the pricing afterwards.
Ms Cai also said that she would reveal the price to customers when they approach her stall to buy their meals.
If the customer thought it was expensive, they could tell her or request a change.
“Most of our customers here are regular customers, and everyone knows the prices,” she said.
“We don’t use frozen ingredients, they are all fresh ingredients, and the cost of ingredients is already expensive,” Ms Cai further stated, indicating green beans as one of those products.
In addition, Ms Cai pointed out that the customer had received a sizeable portion of fish, with the portion of eggs being thick as well.
“The mackerel meat is also thickly sliced, and the portion of the eggs is also thick, not to mention the cost of green beans is also high.”
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Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News and @henrykweksg on Instagram.
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