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West Coast Drive’s famous Original Ah Hoe Mee Pok is no more. Gone is the flashy red signboard, but if you look closely, its stall unit is still selling , albeit cooked by a different hawker.  The shop name has changed too, to Fan Ji Specialty Noodle . Ah Hoe Mee Pok’s original owner, Eric Chia (who’s known as Ah Hoe) , is no longer at the stall — instead, you’ll find a young man, Oliver Chia, 27, in his place, whipping up noodles all by himself. What happened? No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg . As it turns out, Oliver is Eric’s ex-assistant and godson, whom the older hawker has passed his stall to. Now that Eric, 57 , is semi-retired, Oliver tells that he “hopes to continue the legacy that [Eric] has built”.  For context, Original Ah Hoe Mee Pok opened in 2014, though the brand name itself has quite the interesting history.  Prior to setting up Original Ah Hoe Mee Pok, Eric ran a stall called Ah Hoe Mee Pok at a Clementi coffeeshop, but passed the ropes to his Japanese cook, Naoji Kuribara, who trained under him for six months. Naoji later rebranded the stall to Li Yuan Mee Pok , which had five outlets at its peak. Most have since shuttered, leaving just the Clementi and Boon Lay outlets still in operation. According to Oliver, Eric declined to go into why he set up another hawker stall called Original Ah Hoe Mee Pok after his earlier biz was renamed to Li Yuan. 1 4 From customer to godson to stall owner Prior to taking over the rebooted Original Ah Hoe Mee Pok joint in February this year, Oliver had been working as Eric’s assistant for two years. But their story didn’t begin there. According to the young hawker, he has been a fan of Ah Hoe Mee Pok since he was in secondary school.  “I have known Eric since young. My friends and I used to patronise his stall very often, from when he was operating in Clementi till when he moved here,” Oliver explains. He adds: “I became quite close to [Eric and his wife] over time and they regard me as their godson, so one day I just decided to ask them if I could work at their stall.”  Oliver shares that he and his group of friends are pretty tight-knit with the older couple, who don’t have kids of their own. According to him, they would gather to celebrate birthdays and Chinese New Year together.  Were his pals surprised to see him work at their fave makan spot? “Some of them were surprised,” Oliver says, adding: “But my customers were more surprised, I think. They asked me if Ah Hoe has already retired.” 2 4 Original owner Eric Chia working at Original Ah Hoe Mee Pok After completing his National Service, Oliver began working at Original Ah Hoe Mee Pok in 2022. At that point, he had also graduated with a Diploma in Business Management from the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM).  He shares that getting into the hawker biz wasn’t really on his cards, but it was a random idea that came to him after he graduated and completed his National Service. “I enjoy cooking quite a bit in general, so I thought I could try being a hawker and see how it goes,” he says. “This is a dying trade, so I wanted to try it out.”  As Eric has no successors, Olivier explains: “No one was going to take over his stall, so I just asked him to teach me how to cook.” He didn’t have to pay Eric to learn how to cook his recipes — in fact, Oliver was paid a staff’s salary when he was apprenticing at Eric’s stall. He then took over the stall as a natural move when Eric wanted to step down. “He said he didn’t really want to continue running it already, so I said I could take over,” the young hawker shares. 3 4 Same menu, different signboard Though the young towkay has gotten a fresh new signboard, which he explains is because he wants his “own name and own branding”, he tells us that he has retained Ah Hoe’s original menu. But he is thinking of adding a few side dishes, like dumplings, to the menu. So far, customers have told Oliver that his noodles are up to standard: “They say [my noodles] are quite similar to my godfather’s,” he shares.  The stall also hasn’t lost its regulars. Oliver shares: “My regulars mostly know who I am, ‘cos I [was working] there every other day for some time.” 4 4 His recipes and method of cooking all remain true to Eric’s. While we haven’t tried it for ourselves, Ah Hoe Mee Pok (and now, Fan Ji Specialty Noodle), is known for its springy, thick mee pok noodles and cloudy, flavourful soup.  While most mee pok stalls serve their toppings on the noodles itself, Oliver serves most of the ingredients in the accompanying bowl of soup instead, leaving only mock abalone slices and pork lard for the noodles.  Fan Ji Specialty Noodle’s Signature Mee Pok starts at $7 with one fresh prawn, but its most popular offering is the Signature Mee Pok with Prawn Paste (from $7.90) . Though he has no solid plans yet, Oliver says he might want to expand the Ah Hoe brand in the future. But for now, he remains focused on running his existing stall.  He reckons that he prefers working as a hawker to a regular office job. “If I work in an office, I’ll have to deal with bosses and everything and I don’t like that, so I’m better off working for myself,” he laughs. Fan Ji Specialty Noodle is at 501 West Coast Dr, Food Loft Coffee Shop, S120501. Open daily except Monday 6.30am-2.30pm. More info via Facebook . Photos: Fan Ji Specialty Noodle, Google Reviews/Troo Foo, Facebook/Spike Sim, Facebook/CT Ang No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg . 8days.sg is now on #tiktok! Follow us on www.tiktok.com/@8dayseat