TO FULLY immerse myself in hawker food culture, I film, dissect and write about it.

KEEP THEM COMING: About 400 portions of cha hae mee being dished out in a campus dining hall. PICTURE: MAKANSUTRA

I either enjoy the creations or am polite about hating them. I also take foodies on food safaris to devour dishes.

But recently, I had that being-a-hawker moment.

I had to fry 400 plates of cha hae mee (fried Hokkien noodles), dish out 200 bowls of bak kut teh and serve up 120 plates of chicken rice over two days.

These dishes were part of the menu on offer at the St Francis Xavier university campus dining hall and at Fredericton university in New Brunswick, where we were invited to cook and showcase Singapore makan.

The Tasty Singapore day, organised by International Enterprise Singapore and food giant Sodexo, was part of a 'road trip' makan mission we embarked on in Canada and the US.

Polished

St Francis Xavier is located in the town of Antigonish in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where, if everybody living there showed up for a shopping spree in VivoCity, you would not notice the crowd.

It's a whistle-stop town. Their 2,500 population could not quite fill up the ground floor. And when the school term is in full swing, the ulu town population suddenly doubles.

It is so small, they don't even have a McDonald's outlet.

And in one of the two Chinese restaurants there, they still whip up old-fashioned American Chinese chow like moo goo guy pan, chow mien, chop suey and Singapore noodles. (In a moment of folly, I tried them all. I won't go down that what-is-it alley now, I'll save it for a rainy day.)

New Brunswick is more sane - they have shopping malls and parking meters.

Sure, their kitchens were slick and polished, very Western and they use big branded industrial-sized equipment to make soups and beef chillis, and to fry, steam, broil and grill their usual Western canteen fare like sandwiches, burgers, fries, soups and pizzas.

But their 'stir-fry' international section was pathetic - just a couple of small skillets on induction burners where we can juggle at most only three mid-sized portions per fry (imagine a hawker frying cha hae mee on a 12-inch flat base pan - yeah, you can almost hear the impatient cries of 'faster can or not' or 'how long, ah' from your customers).

At any point in time during dinner, the queue at that station was at least 25 deep.

So, it was a regimented hawker routine over 120minutes of: garlic in, then eggs, followed by hokkien mee and beehoon, fry-fry to loosen the noodles, then soften it with our own prawn stock (brewed with pork bones, prawns, clams and dried shrimps). Season it with fish sauce and dark soy, steam the noodles a bit, then fry it with a topping of prawns, sotong and pork slices with bean sprouts and chives. Do this about 80 times over two hours on each day.

Fortunately, I had help from their cooks (we survived somehow even though they had never managed this before) and cleared the queue without much delay.

It was a joy, especially when it began to snow.

We had a clear view out of the St Francis Xavier dining hall windows. We saw snow falling like the shaved ice in an ice kachang machine.

Then I realised that I had been under-pitching the perfect soup for that moment - bak kut teh.

Keep them warm

I boomed over the speakers about how this soup - clear and strange-looking (what with bones sticking out of it) - was the perfect broth for the day.

It had meat, it was garlicky, gently salted and had a kick of white pepper that would keep them awake for doing homework and keep them warm for the weekend.

The students' reaction dictated that I had to dish out 200 portions - each one with two ribs flooded in bak kut teh.

I had to somehow debone and chop up 10 chickens, and serve up 120 portions of chicken rice, offered with chilli sauce, cucumbers with tomato and doused with a soy and sesame oil sauce.

Dear God, thanks for the experience, but please try not to make me a full-time hawker. Very siong, leh!

Makansutra, founded by KF Seetoh, is a company that celebrates Asian food culture and lifestyle. It publishes food guides in and around the region, produces a food television series, develops interactive mobile content and services, operates food courts and eateries, organises food tours and events, and consults on culinary concepts.

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