Hawker Tales by Hock Ko is a Singapore heritage cookbook in digital book form. Thirty-five recipes across seven dialect kitchens — Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hainanese, Hakka, Peranakan, and Foochow — narrated in the voice of a fictional master-hawker persona, Hock Ko (阿福哥).

Hock Ko is a fictional composite. He is not a real person. He is built from interviews, oral histories, hawker memoirs, and the lived knowledge of Singapore's hawker community. We use his voice to honour the technique, dignity, and economics of dishes that were almost never written down. Every recipe has been researched, tested, and modelled against working stall economics.

The Hokkien dialect terms used inline — siao di, aiyoh, wok hei, tee yew phok, sua lor and many more — are common to Singapore-Hokkien hawker speech of Hock Ko's generation. Glosses appear inline on first use within each recipe, and are gathered on the Glossary.

Set in Cormorant Garamond (display), Crimson Pro (body), and Noto Serif SC (Han characters). Illustrated in watercolour and gouache, in the Song Fa "Our Legacy" warm-earth palette. Cover painting by hand.

This is a living book. New recipes will be added across the year. If you spot an error in technique, history, or attribution, please write — corrections are welcome. We are not building a museum; we are putting a cookbook on a shelf for a young hawker to read at four in the morning when the stockpot starts.

Cook well. Charge fairly.