“Broccoli is meat” cashier says; charges diner S$6.70 for cai png

SINGAPORE: A woman took to social media due to her surprise at how she was charged recently at a mixed rice stall. Ms Sherry Zhang took to the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook page on Friday (Oct 6), posting her receipt as proof.

“What you see is what I get,” wrote Ms Zhang about the meal she had at for lunch Lao Ban Niang at NEX Food Junction at Serangoon Central. “Broccoli is a meat as claimed by the cashier. Also fishcake is a fish.”

The receipt Ms Zhang posted along with a photo of her meal showed that the meal she had been given was charged S$3.00 for pork belly, and then another S$3.70 for one meat and one vegetable. After a discount and GST, she ended up paying S$6.03. There appeared to be very little, if any, meat on Ms Zhang’s plate, but certainly did have a lot of vegetables.

“I have 臭豆 (peat) with mince meat but I don’t understand why broccoli is considered as meat. Maybe because is expensive. My dish is 2 veg and a meat,” Ms Zhang commented.

Many people have commented on Ms Zhang’s post on Facebook and shared it on the platform.

“That cashier sotong (confused or mixed up) lah. Just simply the cost of broccoli is higher than many other veg,” wrote one netizen. Another chimed in “Yes. it’s frustrating. My side at TPY also charge extra for broccoli.” But one netizen answered this by writing, “China broccoli is pretty cheap unless of course the food court are using Australian broccoli which they will NEVER use.”

Some commenters wrote that a dish with minced meat, however little, is still considered meat by vendors. “Mince meat is still considered meat dish this is standard.”

“Hmm. Is it broccoli with minced meat? If it is, den it will be charged as meat.”

“Any kind of vegetable fry with even very little minced meat, they considered the dish as ‘meat’ price. Nowadays, even simple mixed veg rice is very expensive especially in food court.”

Others, however, wondered where the pork belly stated on the receipt had gone.

And one wrote that the higher cost of living these days has really affected food stall owners.

“No choice. If the stall rental is $10,000 a month, the stall holder needs to work nonstop 30 days a month, to earn $300 a day just to pay the rent. Not including worker salary, ingredients, gas, electricity, cleaning cost etc. The profit margin is very thin for these stall holders.”

The Independent Singapore has reached out to Ms Zhang, and Lao Ban Niang, for further updates or comments. /TISG

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