It took several attempts before this 8days.sg writer managed to catch Huang Yiliang for a chat.
The former Mediacorp actor, now a hawker and fishmonger, is often too busy to talk – once even asking us to call back later as he was busy figuring out how to post on Instagram.
“I’m so exhausted,” he tells us when we finally reach him, but adds that life as a hawker has also been a rewarding one.
The 64-year-old now runs Old Fisherman, a two-month-old stall at Circuit Road Hawker Centre specialising in crab dishes like crab bee hoon, chilli crab as well as other seafood such as steamed fish. He also has a seafood wet market stall at MacPherson Market and Food Centre, which he opened in 2023.
Huang Yiliang in front of his hawker stall, Old Fisherman. (Photo: 8Days)
His days begin before sunrise. Six days a week, Huang wakes at 5am to head to the wet market, where he tends to his raw seafood stall while preparing ingredients for his hawker business. Everything is packed up and brought over to Circuit Road later in the morning.
“This ensures that I serve customers the freshest food,” he says.
After closing shop at 11am, he makes his way to Old Fisherman nearby to begin lunch service, which runs till about 2pm. A short nap follows before he returns in the late afternoon to prep for dinner. The stall reopens from 5pm to around 8pm, and by the time he finishes cleaning up, it is close to 10pm.
It is a demanding routine by most standards, though Huang shrugs it off.
“If you enjoy your job, it doesn’t feel like hard work,” he says. “In the beginning, everything feels more difficult. Once you get into the rhythm, it’s okay. For me, it’s like no harm trying. Actually, [F&B is] a good industry to be in.”
The first few weeks, he admits, were a steep learning curve. “I was very blur. I didn’t know a lot of things, like how to prepare ingredients or order from suppliers... I went to the supermarket to buy ingredients,” he says. “But after a while, you’ll get used to it.”
Old Fisherman is located at Circuit Road Hawker Centre. (Photo: 8Days)
Huang, who joined the then-Singapore Broadcasting Corporation in 1985, was a familiar face on local television for years before stepping away from acting in 2008. In recent years, he has also faced legal troubles, including serving time for an assault case in 2021 and being fined and disqualified from driving following a road traffic offence in 2024.
He continues to also run a plumbing business on the side, though these days he engages plumbers on an ad-hoc basis.
The idea of going into the seafood business took shape later, eventually evolving into both a wet market stall and, more recently, this hawker stall venture. Huang, who has long enjoyed cooking and eating crabs, says the move was also about doing something he genuinely likes in this stage of life.
He still gets acting offers, but he says he has little interest in returning. “People have been asking me to go back to acting for more than 10 years, but I don’t want to. I’m already old,” he says.
The public’s response to his new stall has surprised him.
Following media publicity in recent weeks, sales at Old Fisherman have doubled, drawing curious diners and longtime fans alike. On weekends, queues can stretch past an hour, with customers travelling from across the island for his crab bee hoon.
Former colleagues, including Yang Libing, Lin Yisheng, and Henry Thia, as well as directors and industry friends, have also dropped by to show their support.
When asked if he hopes his daughter, actress Chantalle Ng, will visit the stall, Huang says he hasn’t given it much thought.
Despite previous reports that they are estranged, Huang says their relationship “is not that bad”.
“[We contact each other] mainly during big occasions like weddings and funerals. Nothing much beyond that.”
Ng, 30, is Huang's daughter with ex-wife, actress Lin Meijiao. He has since remarried and has a son, 21, an undergraduate.
Huang Yiliang in the kitchen. (Photo: 8Days)
The surge in business has been encouraging, but it has also added pressure.
Huang admits manpower remains a challenge. His assistant, who helps with orders and preparation, has not been in the best of health, and in the past week, he has had to close lunch service.
“But this is temporary,” he says, adding that lunch should resume in May. “I need to do lunch business as well, otherwise I’ll be in trouble, with my rent and overheads.”
He is also adapting on the fly, tweaking his offerings to suit demand. Lunch crowds, he notes, tend to favour smaller, single-portion and quicker dishes over crab, prompting him to rethink his menu.
Despite the long hours and growing pains, the response has kept him going. Customers have been leaving encouraging comments online, while others make it a point to stop by in person to wish him well.
“When you see this kind of feedback, you will work even harder,” he says.
“What I want is to win over people’s taste buds – that’s my biggest goal in retirement. If I can win over even 15 per cent of this neighbourhood, it’s already very impressive.”
Crab Bee Hoon (S$40) that feeds two. (Photo: 8Days)
Huang's signature dish features a medium-sized mud crab (between 500g to 600g) that feeds two. It is served in a broth made from fish stock simmered overnight. The soup lifted by shaoxing rice wine, adds a fragrant depth that comes through with each spoonful.
While the broth is not as rich as we’d like, it carries a natural sweetness from the crab. The crustacean is fresh and meaty, and the thick bee hoon is satisfyingly slurp-worthy, soaking up the flavourful soup. Pretty yummy.
Steamed Flower Grouper (S$12). (Photo: 8Days)
Cooked Hong Kong-style, the steamed fish, which weighs around 500g, is kept simple, letting freshness take centre stage. The flesh is firm and fresh, though the soya-based sauce it's bathed in runs slightly on the salty side.
Old Fisherman is at #01-29, Circuit Road Hawker Centre, 79 Circuit Rd, Singapore 370079. Open daily except Mon, 12pm-2pm, 5pm-8pm.
This story was originally published in 8Days.
For more 8Days stories, visit https://www.8days.sg/
Continue reading...
The former Mediacorp actor, now a hawker and fishmonger, is often too busy to talk – once even asking us to call back later as he was busy figuring out how to post on Instagram.
“I’m so exhausted,” he tells us when we finally reach him, but adds that life as a hawker has also been a rewarding one.
The 64-year-old now runs Old Fisherman, a two-month-old stall at Circuit Road Hawker Centre specialising in crab dishes like crab bee hoon, chilli crab as well as other seafood such as steamed fish. He also has a seafood wet market stall at MacPherson Market and Food Centre, which he opened in 2023.
Huang Yiliang in front of his hawker stall, Old Fisherman. (Photo: 8Days)
His days begin before sunrise. Six days a week, Huang wakes at 5am to head to the wet market, where he tends to his raw seafood stall while preparing ingredients for his hawker business. Everything is packed up and brought over to Circuit Road later in the morning.
“This ensures that I serve customers the freshest food,” he says.
After closing shop at 11am, he makes his way to Old Fisherman nearby to begin lunch service, which runs till about 2pm. A short nap follows before he returns in the late afternoon to prep for dinner. The stall reopens from 5pm to around 8pm, and by the time he finishes cleaning up, it is close to 10pm.
It is a demanding routine by most standards, though Huang shrugs it off.
“If you enjoy your job, it doesn’t feel like hard work,” he says. “In the beginning, everything feels more difficult. Once you get into the rhythm, it’s okay. For me, it’s like no harm trying. Actually, [F&B is] a good industry to be in.”
The first few weeks, he admits, were a steep learning curve. “I was very blur. I didn’t know a lot of things, like how to prepare ingredients or order from suppliers... I went to the supermarket to buy ingredients,” he says. “But after a while, you’ll get used to it.”
Old Fisherman is located at Circuit Road Hawker Centre. (Photo: 8Days)
Huang, who joined the then-Singapore Broadcasting Corporation in 1985, was a familiar face on local television for years before stepping away from acting in 2008. In recent years, he has also faced legal troubles, including serving time for an assault case in 2021 and being fined and disqualified from driving following a road traffic offence in 2024.
He continues to also run a plumbing business on the side, though these days he engages plumbers on an ad-hoc basis.
The idea of going into the seafood business took shape later, eventually evolving into both a wet market stall and, more recently, this hawker stall venture. Huang, who has long enjoyed cooking and eating crabs, says the move was also about doing something he genuinely likes in this stage of life.
He still gets acting offers, but he says he has little interest in returning. “People have been asking me to go back to acting for more than 10 years, but I don’t want to. I’m already old,” he says.
The public’s response to his new stall has surprised him.
Following media publicity in recent weeks, sales at Old Fisherman have doubled, drawing curious diners and longtime fans alike. On weekends, queues can stretch past an hour, with customers travelling from across the island for his crab bee hoon.
Former colleagues, including Yang Libing, Lin Yisheng, and Henry Thia, as well as directors and industry friends, have also dropped by to show their support.
When asked if he hopes his daughter, actress Chantalle Ng, will visit the stall, Huang says he hasn’t given it much thought.
Despite previous reports that they are estranged, Huang says their relationship “is not that bad”.
“[We contact each other] mainly during big occasions like weddings and funerals. Nothing much beyond that.”
Ng, 30, is Huang's daughter with ex-wife, actress Lin Meijiao. He has since remarried and has a son, 21, an undergraduate.
Huang Yiliang in the kitchen. (Photo: 8Days)
The surge in business has been encouraging, but it has also added pressure.
Huang admits manpower remains a challenge. His assistant, who helps with orders and preparation, has not been in the best of health, and in the past week, he has had to close lunch service.
“But this is temporary,” he says, adding that lunch should resume in May. “I need to do lunch business as well, otherwise I’ll be in trouble, with my rent and overheads.”
He is also adapting on the fly, tweaking his offerings to suit demand. Lunch crowds, he notes, tend to favour smaller, single-portion and quicker dishes over crab, prompting him to rethink his menu.
Despite the long hours and growing pains, the response has kept him going. Customers have been leaving encouraging comments online, while others make it a point to stop by in person to wish him well.
“When you see this kind of feedback, you will work even harder,” he says.
“What I want is to win over people’s taste buds – that’s my biggest goal in retirement. If I can win over even 15 per cent of this neighbourhood, it’s already very impressive.”
CRAB BEE HOON (S$40)
Crab Bee Hoon (S$40) that feeds two. (Photo: 8Days)
Huang's signature dish features a medium-sized mud crab (between 500g to 600g) that feeds two. It is served in a broth made from fish stock simmered overnight. The soup lifted by shaoxing rice wine, adds a fragrant depth that comes through with each spoonful.
While the broth is not as rich as we’d like, it carries a natural sweetness from the crab. The crustacean is fresh and meaty, and the thick bee hoon is satisfyingly slurp-worthy, soaking up the flavourful soup. Pretty yummy.
STEAMED FLOWER GROUPER (S$12)
Steamed Flower Grouper (S$12). (Photo: 8Days)
Cooked Hong Kong-style, the steamed fish, which weighs around 500g, is kept simple, letting freshness take centre stage. The flesh is firm and fresh, though the soya-based sauce it's bathed in runs slightly on the salty side.
Old Fisherman is at #01-29, Circuit Road Hawker Centre, 79 Circuit Rd, Singapore 370079. Open daily except Mon, 12pm-2pm, 5pm-8pm.
This story was originally published in 8Days.
For more 8Days stories, visit https://www.8days.sg/
Continue reading...