Michelin Guide Video: Singapore's Last Kachang Puteh Man
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I interviewed Singapore's last Kachang Puteh man, Mr Amirthaalangaram Moorthy, as part of a Michelin Guide campaign to promote Singapore heritage food. Mr Amirthaalangaram is a third-generation kachang puteh seller and is one of the last few remaining kachang puteh street peddlers in Singapore.
Once a common sight outside cinemas and markets, the local road-side snack institution is a fading trade.
The video was done in line with the launch of MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2018 on paying homage to Singapore's food heritage.
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Parked at the entrance of Peace Centre in Selegie Road is the last bastion of Singapore’s yesteryear snack culture. Over the past two decades, a humble pushcart peddling an eclectic assortment of kachang puteh (“kachang” refers to nuts and “puteh” or “putih” means white in Malay) has remained a fixture along the bustling street. Simply known as “Kachang Puteh”, the metallic pushcart is crammed with 20 types of nuts, legumes and crackers that are housed in bright red-capped bottles. Popular nibbles include cashew nuts, tapioca fritters, sugar-coated peanuts, prawn sticks and murukku. For those who prefer to pop something warm into their mouths, there are also lightly-salted boiled peanuts and chickpeas that are served warm from an electric steamer. Customers can pick and choose which munchies to fill up their folded paper cones (from $1 for two types of snacks). Mending the stall is Amirthaalangaram Moorthy, a third-generation kachang puteh seller, who arrived here in 2004 from his native Tamil Nadu to continue his family business. The Singapore permanent resident hails from a family that has a long-standing history with kachang puteh. The 51-year-old says that many kachang puteh sellers live in his ancestral village in southern India due to the abundance of nuts grown in the area.
His grandfather, who migrated to Singapore, used to peddle the snack around the kampongs in Hougang in the 1960s. His father continued the business and was a familiar sight among peckish cinema-goers at the Hoover Theatre in Balestier, where many Tamil movies were screened. In 1996, the theatre was demolished and the stall moved to Peace Centre a year later.
Moorthy says that sales at his stall is dwindling as snacks such as popcorn and potato chips are more popular these days. He laments with a shrug: “Last time, there were many kachang puteh sellers outside cinemas in areas such as Yishun and Ang Mo Kio. There were many other kachang puteh sellers outside Hoover Theatre too. Now, there is nobody.”
Why is the kachang puteh trade fading out? He says: “Usually fathers would pass their skills to their sons, but most people do not want to continue this as it is a difficult business.”
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