Update 29 Feb 2024: 11 ice cream street hawking licences still active as of Jan. 2024
A quintessential part of many Singaporeans' childhood is buying ice cream from the ice cream uncle and the ice cream cart attached to his motorcycle. As of January 2024, only 11 street hawking licences issued for the sale of ice cream remain active, said Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon.
This was in response to a parliamentary question raised by Workers' Party (WP) Member of Parliament (MP) Gerald Giam, who asked how many street hawking licences have been issued for streetside ice-cream vendors in the last 10 years and how many are still active. He also asked whether the licences from the inactive vendors can be transferred to new applicants and "how much longer will streetside ice-cream vendors be allowed to exist". Koh explained that the Street Hawking Scheme was intended to assist unemployed individuals temporarily.
These individuals are assessed to be best supported through a street hawking licence instead of other financial assistance or employment matching schemes offered by a Social Service Office. As such, such hawking licences are personal to the holder and non-transferable. "In the past decade, 21 licences were issued under the Street Hawking Scheme for the sale of ice cream. Of these, 11 remain active as of January this year," said Koh.
Sim Lim Ice-Cream Uncle Is Back
Hi Foodies, according to a Facebook post by Happy People Helping People community, our beloved Sim Lim Ice-Cream Uncle is back selling ice cream at the same spot! We are so happy that he is finally able to operate his business after being closed due to the circuit breaker.
87-year-old ice cream seller, Ng Teak Boon, had recently caught the attention of netizens after CNA insider released videos exposing poverty in Singapore. For more than 10 years, Mr Ng had been selling $1.50 ice-cream from a bicycle cart beside the Sim Lim Tower. As selling ice-cream is his only source of income, the videos prompted overwhelming support from citizens throughout Singapore.
Ever since the touching story of Mr Ng went viral, many viewers offered to help Mr Ng live a better life. One of them was Andre Chiang, owner of recently closed-down Michelin Starred restaurant, Restaurant Andre. He created an ice-cream sandwich dessert as a tribute to Mr Ng. For every ice-cream he sold at his restaurant, he would donate $5 to Mr Ng.
Life of an ice-cream uncle
“Working under the sun and rain is not easy, but I take it one day at a time”
74-year-old ice-cream hawker sells ice cream in the heartlands as he says it's impossible to change jobs at his age. Learn how he lives one day at a time.
Slice. Chop. Unwrap. Then, slide the ice cream in between two wafer-thin biscuits. His steady, wrinkled hands worked swiftly as he prepared the frozen treat and handed it in a plastic wrapper to a schoolgirl in uniform. His reward? A handful of coins – $1.50 in total. He goes through the motion with ease. After all, he has been doing this for more than 45 years, he says.
74-year-old Uncle Chan is one of Singapore’s few remaining licensed traditional ice-cream hawkers. He rides a bike with a bright yellow Magnolia sidecar used to carry blocks of ice cream for sale. “Look,” he said, showing me his license proudly. “There are only a few of these licenses in Singapore (to sell ice cream on the streets). They are not issuing it anymore. I cannot even transfer it to my son,” Uncle Chan told The Pride in Mandarin.
According to the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), the licenses held by street hawkers like Uncle Chan are non-transferable, even to family members who might be interested to take over. These licenses are also not being issued anymore. And the number of these ice-cream hawkers has been dwindling over the years. Where there were once numerous ice-cream carts lining the streets of Orchard Road, only a handful now remain. In 2019, CNA reported that there are only about 200 of these ice-cream hawkers left in Singapore, highlighting the worry that this slice of Singaporean life may possibly vanish with its purveyors.
'Once they are gone, it will really be a pity': Orchard Rd ice-cream carts could end with their owners
Out of the 200 street hawkers who have chosen to sell ice-cream, just 7 operate along Orchard Road
Attending to his customers, Mr Chieng Puay Chui and his ice-cream cart have been a familiar sight along Orchard Road for about three decades. The 71-year-old, more commonly known as Uncle Chieng to his customers, has been an ice-cream street hawker since 1965. About 30 years ago, he decided to start selling ice-cream along Orchard Road outside the old Tangs building, and moved to his current spot in front of Ngee Ann City when it opened 26 years ago.
But his ice-cream cart and six others along the stretch of shopping street could become a memory when their licence holders pass on. Street hawkers like Mr Chieng hold licences that are personal to the holder and non-transferable, said the Singapore Food Agency (SFA). They cannot transfer their licence to family members or friends who might want to take over.
“It’ll be a pity if there are no more ice-cream uncles, especially because this is Singapore’s traditional ice-cream,” said Mr Chieng in Mandarin. “I don’t know if anything will be done to make sure Orchard Road will still have ice-cream uncles in the future.” Mr Chieng is among 13 street hawkers allowed to sell ice-cream on any "public land”, according to SFA, with seven choosing to operate along Orchard Road. Tourists from Indonesia, China, Thailand and the Philippines have heard of his ice-cream cart, and many of them visit Orchard Road to meet him, he told CNA.
The Ice Cream Uncle
There are days when the weather gets so hot we could feel our scalps melting. And then, “Ling-ling-ling!” The saviour arrives, on an ice cream cart mounted on a motorcycle under a large parasol. Instantly, our minds conjure up ice cream cones, and sandwiches – rectangular blocks of ice cream clamped between sliced pink and green bread, or crispy yellow wafer biscuits. “One ice cream sandwich, uncle. Sweet corn flavour.” The lady first in line called him uncle and so did the little boy behind.
Uncle Jimmy, 68, is one of these ice cream uncles. Before starting to sell ice cream in 2003, he was a char kway teow hawker at Sungei Road, sold vinyl records, and zipped people around Singapore in a taxi. Nowadays, he parks his trusty ice cream cart near the entrance to Lavender MRT station and the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) Building. On a typical afternoon, a constant stream of people is making a beeline for ice creams.
His customers, from all walks of life, pop by to get an instant milky sugar rush from this basic ice cream sandwich. It costs just S$1 – a little piece of haven in this ‘world’s most expensive city’. He offers a range of flavours, from durian, red bean, jagung (corn), mango etc… besides the usual chocolate, vanilla, mocha etc. The attap chee (palm fruit) flavour is on the menu but he doesn’t offer it anymore – as cost has gone unreasonably north lately. He hardly smiles… unless someone cracks a joke or strikes a conversation with him. So go let a funny one on him and share a laugh.
We spoke to 3 ice cream uncles. Here are their stories
The ice cream sandwich has become one of the many icons of Singapore. In fact, it's so important to us that we all got very angry when BuzzFeed said it tasted terrible.
But a big part of the Singaporean-ness that is associated with ice cream sandwiches, is the uncle behind the cart. Sadly, though, despite their importance in Singapore culture, the number of ice cream uncles has been dwindling over the years. Where there were once countless ice cream carts along Orchard Road now remain just about four or five on a fair-weathered day. But what does being an ice cream uncle actually involve? Where did the traditional ice cream sandwich even come from? Do we actually understand the intricacies of the ice cream uncle industry?
We got kaypoh (okay, actually our editor did and arrowed us as one of our final assignments on our internships here), so we headed out to disturb talk to a few of them to find out more about what they do. And all three uncles we met definitely had strong characters, and seemed to love what they do:
- Uncle Chieng - Uncle Chieng is 70 years old. He tells us he started selling ice-cream because he was not very educated.
- Uncle Soh - Uncle Soh is another veteran in the business. He began selling ice cream in Boon Lay in 1970 before moving his cart to Bugis more than 20 years ago.
- Uncle Chen - For Uncle Chen, who only joined the industry 17 years ago, the license he has allows him to sell ice cream in Ang Mo Kio only.
5 Ice Cream Uncles In Singapore For Your Fix Of Traditional Ice Cream Potong
If you grew up in Singapore, you’d be familiar with the concept of Ice Cream Uncles who sell ice cream potong (the type of ice cream available in blocks that you have to cut). They move from one area to the next and the distinctive ringing of the bell is one you’ll notice immediately! 😄 But it might be hard to find these ice cream uncles if you don’t know where to look. Here are some who are stationed in more busy streets:
- Uncle Jimmy Traditional Ice Cream On Wheels @ Lavender
- Uncle Chieng Traditional Ice Cream @ Ngee Ann City
- Sim Lim Ice Cream Uncle @ Sim Lim Square
- Helix Bridge Ice Cream Uncle @ Helix Bridge
- Takashimaya Ice Cream Uncle @ Takashimaya
The Kachang Puteh Man
Parked at the entrance of Peace Centre in Selegie Road is the last bastion of Singapore’s yesteryear snack culture. Over the past two decades, a humble pushcart peddling an eclectic assortment of kachang puteh (“kachang” refers to nuts and “puteh” or “putih” means white in Malay) has remained a fixture along the bustling street.
Simply known as “Kachang Puteh”, the metallic pushcart is crammed with 20 types of nuts, legumes and crackers that are housed in bright red-capped bottles. Popular nibbles include cashew nuts, tapioca fritters, sugar-coated peanuts, prawn sticks and murukku. For those who prefer to pop something warm into their mouths, there are also lightly-salted boiled peanuts and chickpeas that are served warm from an electric steamer. Customers can pick and choose which munchies to fill up their folded paper cones (from $1 for two types of snacks).
Mending the stall is Amirthaalangaram Moorthy, a third-generation kachang puteh seller, who arrived here in 2004 from his native Tamil Nadu to continue his family business. The Singapore permanent resident hails from a family that has a long-standing history with kachang puteh. The 51-year-old says that many kachang puteh sellers live in his ancestral village in southern India due to the abundance of nuts grown in the area.
Guess who's back: Well-loved kacang puteh stall from Peace Centre spotted in Toa Payoh
Decades ago, old-school snacks like kacang puteh could easily be purchased from hawkers outside cinemas and along the streets. But sadly, it is now a dying trade.
Running one of the last few kacang puteh stalls in Singapore is Amirthaalangaram Moorthy, a third-generation owner of his family business. His humble pushcart stall used to be located at the entrance of Peace Centre, but it was shuttered earlier this year with the building undergoing a makeover.
However, it seems like the business is back with a bang because some sharp-eyed netizens spotted Amirthaalangaram manning a kacang puteh booth at Toa Payoh Bus Interchange. On the menu, cashew nuts are going for $2 while the rest of the tidbits like peanuts and chickpeas are going for $1.50.
