In a curious incident over the weekend, a curry puff stallholder in Hong Lim Complex got into a bit of a scuffle with an elderly man.
The altercation ended with both sides sustaining injuries, with the man’s arm ending up scratched and bloody.
Source: Shin Min Daily News on Facebook
However, there’s more than meets the eye to this incident, which has its roots in a bitter family feud.
The incident took place at 11.05am on Sunday (12 Nov), reported Shin Min Daily News.
It involved Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff Original, a well-known stall in the food centre.
Source: Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff Original 东陵正宗老店酥皮咖喱角 on Facebook
Its proprietor Peter Ng, 57, told Shin Min that they had seen the elderly man walking around outside their stall.
He also appeared to be taking photos of them using his phone.
The man’s behaviour prompted Mr Ng to approach him and request to check his phone’s camera roll, he said.
He refused to hand over his phone, and the stall owner didn’t touch him, he added.
However, Mr Ng’s fiancée tried to grab the phone from the man, which resulted in a scuffle.
It resulted in both sides getting scratched, the stallholder said, with his fiancée’s hand also suffering injuries.
Source: Shin Min Daily News
Eventually, it was Mr Ng who called the police, he said.
The Singapore Police Force (SPF) confirmed to Shin Min that they’d received a report about the incident.
Source: Shin Min Daily News
According to the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), one person suffered injuries.
They sent the injured party to Singapore General Hospital (SGH), they added.
It might seem strange that Mr Ng would object to somebody simply taking photos of his stall.
However, he explained that he’d seen the same man suspiciously taking photos a few months ago.
Then, two weeks ago the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) accused them of not wearing masks while preparing food.
Under SFA regulations, food handlers must wear a mask during the food preparation and handling process.
Mr Ng told Shin Min that they would normally wear masks at work, but the elderly man must have taken photos of their workers lowering their masks while they were talking.
He also suspected that a complaint was made about them using the photos.
Thus, when they saw the man again, he wanted to confront him about this.
But why would the elderly man do such a thing, though?
It’s all due to a complicated family dispute involving Mr Ng’s family.
Those familiar with the food centre would’ve noticed that there’s another curry puff stall with a similar name just two units away.
That stall is Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff (without the “original”), which is run by Mr Ng’s younger brother Ray Ng, 51.
Source: Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff Since 1952 东陵酥皮咖喱角 on Facebook
The rivalry is intensified by the fact that the stalls are so close to each other. While the older brother’s stall is the corner unit at #02-36, Ray’s stall is at #02-34.
Source: Shin Min Daily News
The older Mr Ng said he often saw the elderly man with his brother and second sister.
When his sister heard about the scuffle, she immediately came down to the food centre, he added.
That’s why he suspects this has something to do with them.
However, the younger brother denied having anything to do with it, saying his older brother had no proof that the man had taken photos of them.
His sister revealed that the man was about 79 years old and lives nearby.
They became acquainted with him only this year, she said, and would get together for food and drinks.
According to a Shin Min article in May 2022, the brothers’ rivalry started when their father, who started the business in 1952, decided to retire.
Mr Peter Ng said their father had transferred the business to him but disagreements arose when his brother decided to return to join the family business.
Thus, their father suggested that they split the business, he added.
However, Mr Ray Ng claimed it was his brother who suggested the split. He wasn’t willing to return the original stall at #02-36, so they had “no choice” but to open a second stall in the same hawker centre, he said.
The younger Mr Ng also blamed his brother’s China-born fiancée for the split, saying his “whole person changed” after he met her.
Mr Peter Ng maintained that he wasn’t happy with how his family treated his fiancée, including not letting her help out at the stall. He questioned why his fiancée wasn’t allowed to help out there when his brother’s girlfriend was allowed to help out.
Complicating matters, their father Ng Yong Cheong, 87, subsequently told Shin Min that his older son’s fiancée had “caused a lot of problems”.
Apparently taking his younger son’s side, the patriarch said one Chinese New Year, the couple even confronted him, demanding to know why she wasn’t allowed to help out at the stall.
This caused the old man to be so angry he had to be hospitalised for three weeks, he added.
The woman, a 37-year-old named only as Ms Yang (transliterated from Mandarin), retorted that she confronted him because she found it unfair that Ray’s girlfriend was allowed to help out but she wasn’t.
When she previously helped out at the stall, she was scolded till she cried by the patriarch, she said. They even called her a “mistress”, she claimed.
Hopefully, the dispute won’t result in any more injuries being suffered by anybody.
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Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News on Facebook and Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff Original 东陵正宗老店酥皮咖喱角 on Facebook.
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