'Chinese cannot be Muslim': Hawker selling halal char kway teow at Bukit Merah accused of converting for more customers

Converting to a new religion already comes with its own set of difficulties, but one man has it especially hard. 

Hawker Anis Ang operates 786 Char Kway Teow at Bukit Merah View Market & Hawker Centre specialising in just one dish — halal char kway teow. 

Born a Chinese, Ang converted to Islam back in 2011 but just prior to that, he started selling this dish partly due to a manpower shortage and also to reach out to a wider customer base, including the Malay-Muslim community.

Previously, this unit belonged to his late grandmother who was selling zi char there for over 20 years before Anis took over and started selling this dish alone.

The 57-year-old told AsiaOne yesterday (Aug 25) that unfortunately, his efforts to also serve the Malay Muslim community have not been so smooth-sailing, with naysayers questioning his intentions and if he did it simply to make money from his Muslim customers. 

Others, he recounted, would also question the legitimacy of his food and asked "are you sure or not" when they found out that his char kway teow is halal. 

There were even those, he said, who went as far as to tell him that "Chinese cannot be Muslim". 

While those hurtful comments did sting, Ang told AsiaOne that he refrained from retaliating. 

"I won't say I am sad out loud, I just keep it inside," he confessed with furrowed brows, adding that he didn't feel that it was necessary to correct them.

In an Aug 5 interview with Tehtarik.sg, a content platform targeted at the Malay Muslim community, Ang said that he received many comments, both negative and positive, about his halal-certified stall when he first started out. 

"But after the customers have known me for a few years, they now know that I am really a Muslim," he added. 

 And to reassure those suspicious about his religious stance, he even has his Muslim conversion card, which shows that he converted in 2011, proudly plastered at the front of his stall.

He also told us that his family was initially against his decision to convert to Islam, but they have since accepted his choice. 

When asked why he converted, his short answer was: "I like this religion". 

Thankfully, things have since gotten better for Ang over time and he told AsiaOne that he has even gained a number of regular customers. 

One diner shared on Tehtarik.sg's TikTok video that despite the stall being out of the way for him, he willingly makes the effort to frequent Ang's stall.

"I live in Yishun, I work in Ang Mo Kio, but I actually travel all the way here to eat the food all the time," he said. 

[embed]https://www.tiktok.com/@tehtarik.sg/video/7128316139473472769?_r=1&_t=8V6UqpyMNve&is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7128316139473472769[/embed]

In fact, Ang said that some 70 per cent of his sales are attributed to Muslims. 

It's a secret

When his grandmother was operating the stall selling zi char decades ago, Ang remembers helping her with the business as a young boy, which was how he learnt cook dishes like kway teow and hor fun. 

He eventually took over the reins after she died in 2010. 

When AsiaOne was at his stall yesterday, we saw a steady stream of customers of different ethnicities keeping him busy as soon as he opened his stall, which was partly lighted by a green bulb. 

Islam has long been associated with the colour green.

Knowing that this dish is commonly fried with pork lard, which is forbidden in Islam, we ask Ang what he replaced this crucial ingredient with.

He smiled and said that it's part of his secret recipe, and declined to reveal more. 

Ang isn't the only one who began selling Muslim-friendly Chinese-style food after converting.

Another prominent hawker who did so is Denise Deanna Chew, the owner of Deanna's Kitchen. 

Her stall specialises in halal prawn noodles, which she created after she married a Muslim and had to eliminate pork from her diet.

Similar to Ang, she's had her fair share of critics, but she chose to ignore the haters. 

"Not everybody has to accept my relationship with [my Muslim husband], it doesn't matter. As long my mum and his parents accept it, I think that is the greatest thing that we need," she had told AsiaOne in an interview last year. 

ALSO READ: 'I miss pork broth ramen': 2 Japanese women share their challenges of being Muslim converts in Singapore

melissateo@asiaone.com