Maxwell's fry-it-yourself hum jin pang stall has quietly closed

No farewell post, no last-week queue. The news came from the stall next door.

If you are at Maxwell and missing the fry-it-yourself fritters, the stall next door is where to pay your respects. China Street Hum Jin Pang, the fried dough fritter stall at #01-28 Maxwell Food Centre, shut for good in the week before 24 August, and the woman who ran it has retired. There was no farewell post. The news came from Deitrich Mohan, the third-generation owner of neighbouring Maxwell Fuzhou Oyster Cake, in an Instagram video.

If you never went, here is what you missed. Hum jin pang, often spelt ham chim peng, are puffy fried dough fritters, and this stall let customers fry their own, for coins, which made it the cheapest bit of theatre in Chinatown.

The owners started as street vendors and were among the first hawkers to move into Maxwell Market in 1986, the year before it became Maxwell Food Centre. Mohan was blunt about what goes with her: "That kind of flavour no longer exists, because she has called it quits."

It is the kind of closure that doesn't make news until it has already happened. Legacy snacks like this sell for coins, and when the person behind the wok stops, there is rarely a successor waiting. Legacy stalls do sometimes resurface elsewhere: China Street Fritters' ngoh hiang stall left Maxwell and reopened in Telok Blangah in 2023.

The unit is being renovated for a new tenant. Until it opens, order the oyster cakes next door; Tanjong Pagar MRT is a short walk away.

Good to know China Street Hum Jin Pang at #01-28 Maxwell Food Centre, 1 Kadayanallur Street, has closed permanently; a new tenant is renovating the unit. Tanjong Pagar MRT is a short walk away.

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China Street Hum Jin Pang | #01-28 Maxwell Food Centre, 1 Kadayanallur Street, Singapore 069184