Angler-turned-fishmonger Dawn Lim of The Chapalang Shop shares her tips.If you are adventurous enough, open up the gills and feel for a little slime. That’sHowever, if it’s slimyPrior to the fish stall, Lim was a regional sales manager in the marine and offshore industry. “Rain or shine, I’d don my coveralls, safety helmet and boots, and go onboard vessels and oil rigs, supplying everything you can find onboard,” she said. She was then a single mum caring for two sons, now 18 and 13.
You’d never have guessed that she hasn’t even gone to bed yet, as she was busy with some work the night before and arrived at the stall with Kong at 5am. They had been giving away their fresh catch to family and friends, which inspired them to open The Chapalang Shop. “It’s about passion and being able to bring good seafood from the sea to the dining table,” said the accidental fishmonger.
Dawn Lim and Alvin Kong co-founded The Chapalang Shop to bring good seafood from the sea to the dining table. Theirs is the only stall at the wet market to vacuum-seal the seafood into portion sizes. “It’s so the customers don’t have to re-pack everything again into bags before putting them into the freezer. This avoids double handling,” Lim explained.
She also offers monthly seafood subscription boxes, in weights of 3kg, 5kg and 10kg, which she said are popular with customers too busy to hit the wet market but who still want the freshest seafood.While life may look like one non-stop hustle, Lim makes time to give back. In fact, that is why she started her home kitchen in the first place.