Popiah (薄饼)

This is a common street or hawker food in Singapore, which is primarily vegetables. My mum would tell me how she used make the popiah skin or 薄饼皮 and sold them when she was only ten years old.

Seventy years ago, Singapore was freshly out of the Japanese Occupation and people were poor. Both my parents did not have opportunities to an education, and worked from young. My mum, being really entrepreneurial, was always selling things to make a living. She is the most entrepreneurial person I have ever known. She is more than just a sales person or hassler. She knew how to look at the problems people were facing and solved them. She created businesses out of solving problems.

I will be asking her how to make those skins one day when I get to see her, and when she is up to it. Meanwhile, she has told me she has stopped buying fresh popiah skins these days, as the packet ones are really good. So until I master the skills of twirling dough in the air and that elastic dough on the pan, I shall use those.

In most of our homes, the various elements are put on the table and we make our own popiah when we want to eat them.  That’s what my mum and mother-in-law still do, and that’s what I do.

You can choose to make these vegan or vegetarian. They won’t taste much inferior.