Today I went to eat at my usual Chinese kopitiam.
There's a favorite stall in here I like frequenting: A "kai see hor fun" hawker.
For those who don't know, kai see hor fun is basically kuay teow (hor fun) noodle soup with shredded chicken (kai see).
I loved going to that hawker because:
a. The soup is extremely flavorful
b. The chicken is perfectly cooked so it's still soft while thoroughly done
I've been going there for months now, almost everyday.
It helped me stick to my carnivore diet a great deal. Easy to stay consistent when the food is delicious.
But something has gone wrong since last week.
First, I started noticing that the soup tastes watery. Lacks umami. Not as properly seasoned.
And then a few days ago I started noticing that the chicken, which used to be so moist and soft, started tasting waxy and dry.
The overall experience now is no longer as stellar as before.
When it comes to a dish as simple as kai see hor fun, every element needs to be on point in order to ensure that the taste is there.
I asked the hawker whether he has changed his recipe, and he said no.
We talked a bit. He seemed pretty concerned that I have complaints about his food.
But he had no idea what went wrong.
According to him, the recipe did not change and as far as he can tell, he's been doing the exact same thing.
Now today, I WAS planning to go back there.
But for the first time in months, I am starting to feel a sense of resistance.
As of now, I would still give it a couple more go.
But if we hit a certain point where I cannot reliably know that I will get what I am expecting, I might lose interest to go back altogether.
How do I know this? Because I switched to this guy from ANOTHER hawker whose standards started dropping.
This may sound like a small matter, but if I am feeling this, so can others.
Especially loyal ones.
And this impacts the bottom line long term.
So it would be best for this hawker to figure out what went wrong, but it’s not a simple thing to do so.
I tried to help him diagnose, and below are all the things I considered:
He said that he boiled the chicken for 40 minutes as he always has. But was there a reliable way to know how much heat is being applied? Because more heat = more cook.
Did he accidentally boil the chicken longer than 40 minutes?
Does he really time himself, or was he going "by feel" all along? Longer cooking time WOULD explain why the chicken is overcooked.
I watched him make a dish, and I noticed that he started re-heating his chicken AFTER he cut them into slices. Has he always done it this way, or did he unconsciously change it for convenience sake?
Hot chicken is hard to handle, so it would make sense from HIS perspective to cut the chicken before immersing them into stock to reheat. But doing this will overcook the chicken.
On the soup: I noticed that the thickness and viscosity of the soup has changed. Did he add water to the stock to make more volume?
Did he use a different chicken stock powder? Was the soup lacking MSG? Salt?
And what did he use to measure the input of the salt/MSG/stock powder in the first place?
Were there measurements in terms of water as well? Or is it going 'by feel'?
But he doesn't know.
Because he's not the owner of the establishment.
He's paid by someone to man the stall, given a set of recipes and instructions to follow.
He has no investment into the business beyond doing the work that he's being paid to do.
He's also not a chef, has no such training, and most of all, he doesn't have the TASTE to know when things go wrong.
He's just following instructions.
In business, things are "fine" as long as the results are consistent.
But without proper process, if results suddenly become inconsistent, we won't know what went wrong.
We may not even notice it going wrong in the first place!.
This is the reality of running a business.
If an expert relies on something to deliver their methodology, checks and balances need to be in place to ensure proper execution of that delivery.
Otherwise, they won’t notice when the magic disappears.
The clients notice, though.
Just like I'm noticing with my chicken soup.
My upcoming workshop, The Augmented Authority on July 14th will show you how to preserve your expertise through AI Coaches.
Not basic chatbots.
AI systems that deliver your exact methodology while catching limiting beliefs and guiding transformation for your clients.
AI maintains YOUR standards without deviation.
Build once. Deliver every time.
Details here: felixtay.com/augmented-authority
FELIX
P.S. I nerd out when it comes to cooking because I have culinary training.
Little known fact: I was a Top 6 finalist in Masterchef Malaysia.
If you ever see me geeking out about food...this is why 🤣