$68,000 for hawker’s century-old yusheng secret recipe

Ma Li Ya Virgin Chicken’s century-old yusheng recipe is selling for S$68,000?

You’ve likely heard of Ma Li Ya Virgin Chicken, the well-loved Hong Kong soy sauce chicken rice hawker stall in Chinatown from the news. Hoping to sell her recipe and business before she retires, the owner, Maria Siew reached out to news platforms to advertise the offer in late Jan.

This time, she’s looking for takers for her family’s yusheng recipe, which was created by her father back in 1926. Despite the dish being a customer favourite, it has not been on the menu for over a decade. No one has stepped forward so far, possibly because of the huge price tag of S$68,000.

Initially, Maria had plans to retire on 12 Feb after trying to sell her soy sauce chicken rice recipe for S$138,000. She seems to have had a change of heart since then, deciding to possibly stay in the hawker business even after someone takes up the offer.

Maria insists that her century-old secret yusheng recipe is one of a kind, and was popular even outside of the Chinese New Year period. If one were to accept the offer, they would be able to learn the recipe from her “right away”. “If you have two or three outlets, you can easily make your money back,” she said.

What makes this offer more unique is that the recipe could be that of traditional Chinese yusheng.

When one hears yusheng, their mind most likely conjures up an image of the well-loved lo hei, which is iconic to Chinese New Year. The original dish, however, differs dramatically from the modern colourful version which was only created in Singapore in the 1970s. Instead of salmon and abalone, it consisted of raw sliced fish such as grass carp and wolf herring.  

If one were to purchase Ma Li Ya Virgin Chicken’s century-old yusheng recipe, it could mean an opportunity to taste the traditional dish in its original, unadulterated magnificence.

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