Stall owner of Tiong Bahru Wah Yuen Porridge in Telok Blangah dies

The stall owner of Tiong Bahru Wah Yuen Porridge, Mr Yip Kwok Weng, who preferred to be known as Raymond Yip, died on Feb 15. His death was announced on the porridge stall’s Facebook page on Feb 15.

He was 71. 

Located at Block 79 Telok Blangah Drive, the stall is known for its Cantonese-style porridge and poached chicken.

Mr Yip’s youngest son, Leon, 31, a public servant, says his father was admitted to National University Hospital on Nov 18 when he complained of severe breathlessness. A tumour was found in his lung and he was later diagnosed with sarcoma.

He had spent most of his time in hospital since then, undergoing chemotherapy in December.

Although he was able to return home for the first two days of Chinese New Year to spend time with his family, including his three grandchildren, and also to have a reunion dinner, he had to go back to the hospital afterwards.

He eventually succumbed to pneumonia which he contracted a few days before his death.

More than 300 relatives, friends and customers showed up for the wake which was held over five days from Feb 15 to 19 at Block 80D Telok Blangah Street 31.

Ms Rachel Ong, 50, a Member of Parliament for West Coast GRC, had visited Mr Yip at the National University Hospital on Dec 6, the day that he started chemotherapy treatment.

She recalls: “He was in high spirits and very positive. He looked well and I had high hopes that he would bounce back from his illness.”

She had gotten to know Mr Yip and his wife, Madam Sheila Ter, 65, in 2020.

She says: “He demonstrated dignity at work. He had passion and pride for what he did and you could taste it in his food. You could taste the meticulous care to details and all the hard work he put into his cooking.

“He was not just good at his craft but he was very good with people. He was always cheerful and greeted his customers, no matter how busy he was.”

Mr Yip was a marketing assistant in the home electronics industry before deciding to apprentice as a hawker at age 34, learning the trade from his father Yip Cher Wah who started Tiong Bahru Hwa Yuen Porridge in Tiong Bahru, selling pig offal porridge. The stall is currently run by Mr Yip’s younger brother.

Mr Yip started his own stall, which he named Tiong Bahru Wah Yuen Porridge, at 51 Neil Road in 1990, before moving to a food court at Amara Shopping Centre in 1998.

He did not deviate from his father’s original recipe, except for the addition of dried scallops to the meat broth for cooking the porridge.

 

In 2005, he moved his stall to Telok Blangah Drive Food Centre, running it with his wife.

In an interview with The Straits Times in February 2022, Mr Yip revealed that the secret to his flavoursome porridge was his broth that was cooked for five hours with pork bones, chicken bones, dried scallops and ikan bilis.

He also believed in using premium ingredients, from light soya sauce to jasmine rice.

The couple had operated the stall from Tuesdays to Sundays until 2016, when his first grandson was born. They decided to open on weekends only, from 8am to 2pm, to earn enough to cover operating costs. Despite the shorter work week, food preparation would start on Thursdays.

 

Mr Yip stopped selling poached chicken when Malaysia’s export ban on live broiler chickens started last June.

Mr Leon Yip says he and his two elder brothers, Shawn, 41, and Nicholas, 36, had been asking their father to scale down his stall operations even before he became ill. “We felt his age was catching up with him and that the workload was too much for him and our mother,” he says.

But his father hesitated to slow down as he wanted to still serve customers who came from different parts of Singapore, especially those who had become friends.

He adds: “He would not have given up his stall or retired fully had he not fallen ill. Running the stall was his connection to the community and his friends.”

The family has no immediate plans for the stall. He adds: “We are still coming to terms with my father’s death and deliberating among ourselves on what to do with the stall.

“We also need to give our mother some time to decide what she wants to do.”