Second-gen owner of hawker stall HarriAnns Nonya Table dies at 76 after battle with colon cancer

SINGAPORE – Mr Harry Tan Kim Song, second-generation owner of hawker stall HarriAnns Nonya Table at Tiong Bahru Food Centre, died on June 14 of colon cancer and pneumonia.

His death was announced on HarriAnns’ Facebook page on June 15. He was 76.

He leaves behind his wife, son, daughter-in-law, daughter, son-in-law and four grandchildren.

The stall is known for its Nonya kueh and Teochew-style glutinous rice, which is a combination of white savoury glutinous rice with braised peanuts and sweet glutinous rice, served with housemade sambal and fried shallots.

Fondly known as Uncle Harry to his customers, Mr Tan had been working there full-time, six days a week, right up to March when he was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer.

His son Alan Tan, 50, chief executive of Peranakan cafe chain HarriAnns Nonya Table, which has four outlets in malls, says his father started suffering bouts of diarrhoea in January. 

Inundated by orders for Nonya kueh and festive cookies during the peak Chinese New Year period, Mr Harry Tan endured the abdominal pain and continued to work. 

When his family celebrated Mr Tan’s birthday on Feb 10 with a Korean barbecue meal at home, Mr Alan Tan noticed his father could not enjoy himself. He felt full after eating a few pieces of grilled meat.

The elder Mr Tan had been worried that he could be suffering from cancer and his worst fear was confirmed after a scan. But he took the news in his stride and went through four cycles of chemotherapy.

Mr Alan Tan says: “My father was optimistic and very positive. He responded well to the treatment.”

In May, the elder Mr Tan was in good spirits and the family planned to take him on a family holiday to his favourite travel destination, Taiwan, in December.

Mr Alan Tan also took his father to Bedok Food City, where he has rented a 6,500 sq ft space for a new central kitchen which is under renovations. His father had been looking forward to its launch in September.

But in early June, blood clots were found in the older Mr Tan’s lungs, and he was given medication to thin his blood.

On June 13, Mr Alan Tan called his father to discuss plans to celebrate Father’s Day on Sunday. They intended to have a steamboat dinner with fish broth, as one of his father’s favourite meals is Teochew-style fish soup.  

At 10.30am the next day, his father called to say he was coughing up blood. Mr Alan Tan, who was at work then, called for an ambulance.

Mr Alan Tan rushed to Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s accident and emergency department where he last saw his father conscious at 11am.

“My father was coughing up blood, but he was lucid and even waved to me. I gave him a thumbs-up sign as the nurse wheeled him in,” he recalls. 

It was a harrowing wait until 2.25pm, when Mr Alan Tan was told his father had died. He says: “My biggest regret is not having the chance to say my last goodbyes to him.”

The Tiong Bahru stall is currently closed, but the family has no intention to shut it down.

Mr Harry Tan’s wife, Madam Annie Lim, 71, who works full-time as a clinic assistant, is considering taking over the stall.

The business was started by Mr Tan’s mother, Madam Chia Nguk Eng, who became a street hawker in the mid-1950s, peddling Nonya kueh and glutinous rice out of a pushcart in Tiong Bahru.

She later moved to Tiong Bahru Food Centre where she was allocated a unit.

At the age of seven, Mr Tan started helping his mother full-time when his father died. He took over the stall in 1985 when his mother retired. His wife helped out on her days off.

Previously, the stall did not have a name, with only the Chinese characters for glutinous rice, nuo mi fan, on the signboard.

Mr Tan named the stall HarriAnn’s Delights upon the suggestion of Mr Alan Tan, who was then 13. The stall, which was located on the first storey, later moved to a unit on the second storey.

Mr Harry Tan’s work days began at 3am, cooking the glutinous rice so that he could sell it, along with Nonya kueh, from 6am to 1pm.

In 2010, he opened a second outlet at Block 146 Jalan Bukit Merah.

While he kept to his mother’s original recipe for glutinous rice, he expanded the kueh range with kueh salat, ondeh ondeh, kueh keledek (sweet potato kueh), tapioca kueh and kueh koswee.

In 2013, Mr Alan Tan left his corporate job as a general manager at an international IT security firm.

He started helping his father at the stall with the intention of moving the business towards a cafe concept in shopping centres. His father was supportive of his idea.

Mr Alan Tan and his wife Sharon Goh, 46, embarked on an expansion plan, opening a 30-seat flagship cafe, HarriAnns Nonya Table, at Bugis Junction in July 2014, followed by outlets at Ocean Financial Centre in 2016, Suntec City in 2018 and Keppel Bay Tower in 2019.

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In 2015, the outlet in Jalan Bukit Merah moved to its current premises in Aljunied, becoming the central kitchen for producing food which was distributed to the outlets, including Mr Harry Tan’s hawker stall.

The older Mr Tan helped train the cooks at the central kitchen and frequently visited it after he ended his shift at his stall. It was in 2017 that he took a step back from cooking. But he would visit the other outlets a few times weekly.

In 2018, his stall was renamed HarriAnns Nonya Table in line with the branding of the other outlets.

Mr Alan Tan says: “My father never thought of retirement. We never asked him about it as we all knew he would not retire. He wanted to keep his mother’s legacy going and he enjoyed working and interacting with customers.”

The older Mr Tan spent his life devoted to his work and his family. He did not have any other hobbies, but he went for walks a few times a week to keep fit.

His son says: “He was more than a father to me, he was a friend and a mentor. At work, he was our consultant and food quality controller, and he gave me plenty of moral support, especially when our business was hit badly at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. He was encouraging and respectful of our decisions. He never talked down to us.”

Mr Tan’s wake is held at Block 145 Jalan Bukit Merah. The cortege will leave for Mandai Crematorium on Sunday at 12.45pm.

About 80 visitors, including his customers, visited the wake when it started on Thursday afternoon.

Mr Alan Tan says: “Some of his hawker friends from Tiong Bahru Food Centre who came by told me that my father was very hardworking and passionate about his stall, and that he would have wanted to work to the very end.”

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.