SINGAPORE - At the age of nine, Mr Jerome Lim Shi Feng was cleaning tables and serving customers at his parents' hawker stall, Ming Fa Fishball Noodles.

Mr Lim, 36, now runs the 76-year-old stall in Chinatown Complex and Food Centre. He took over in 2013, though getting there was not an easy journey.

He had to garner the respect of his father, as well as that of other family members, by learning to operate the stall from scratch so that if a worker fell sick, he could keep the business running smoothly on his own.

His journey is among the stories in author Ow Kim Kit's new book Delicious Heirlooms 2: Our Hawkers, Our Heritage Heroes.

Published by Straits Times Press, it follows her 2019 book Delicious Heirlooms, which traces the founding and growth of 10 well-known family-run restaurants in Singapore.

For her second book, Ow, a lawyer, decided to look at multi-generational hawker businesses.

It is a tribute, she says, to Singapore's hawker culture being inscribed to the Unesco Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2020.

Ow, 47, had intended to focus on hawkers for her second book even before the launch of her first. She began writing the sequel in February 2020 when Covid-19 first struck.

Like her first book, she says, this is not a cookbook, but a "record of how our food and culinary street evolved".

"Many of us neglect how these hawkers came about. Some started as barbers and odd-job workers, so this book tackles why they entered the food industry.

"Hawker culture is an integral part of our Singaporean identity. It has been woven into our social fabric so much that many of us take it for granted that hawker foods should be cheap and cannot be expensive, even though their ingredients are better and more effort goes into it.

"We neglect the fact that hawkers have been performing a very crucial responsibility to serve affordable food to the masses."

Growing up, she would eat at street hawker stalls which drew people with their delicious fare, even though their hygiene standards would be considered less than satisfactory today. "This is something the younger generation will never get to experience."

Hawkers have had to evolve with the times. Mr Lim, who worked in the finance and construction industries before taking over Ming Fa Fishball Noodles, says that while the stall's signature dish of fishball noodles has not changed, its menu has expanded with the times.

"People have started to get more taste-savvy, so we too have evolved to try selling a few other dishes. We do have a central kitchen, so we can dish out more variety such as chicken cutlet noodles, Fuzhou fishball noodles and meatball noodles."

A father of two with a third baby on the way, he says it would be a shame if the stall's legacy does not continue. Yet, he will not pressure his children into joining the business.

"It's not an easy line of work. Covid-19 affected our manpower issues as foreign workers were not able to come in. It was difficult to hire Singaporean workers as well. Most Singaporeans do not want to enter the food industry, as their impression of its work is not as good compared with other industries such as technology or finance."

Despite the challenges, the hawkers featured in Delicious Heirlooms 2 are determined to preserve their food heritage.

Mr Toh Hoi Yip runs 115 Desserts in Chinatown Complex and Food Centre with his wife Lim Siew Khim. They are both 65. 

The business was started by his mother in 1966, when it began on the streets before shifting to its present location in 1984. 

"We specialise in Cantonese desserts, most of which were passed down from my mother. My parents were from Guangdong province (in China), so this food has a deep history," he says.

His mother worked in the stall till the day she died, he adds. Besides ensuring that the recipes did not change, she instilled in him discipline and honesty.

"As long as you have food to eat, it is okay, don't think too big. My mother always said that we hawkers are serving the community, we are not businessmen."

Delicious Heirlooms 2: Our Hawkers, Our Heritage Heroes ($28) will be out in major bookstores in August.