GOASIAPLUS January 2017

“Mr. Hiah’s shop
supplies ingredients
sourced from around
the world.”
Mr Hiah manning
the cashier with his
pipe and shelves of
achievements.
E
very family has their Chinese dish staples
during Chinese New Year featuring an array
of interesting ingredients. These condiments
are not only delicious to eat but have significant
meaning to the Chinese like bringing good fortune
and happiness as they bring in the New Year.
To find out more, we visited Chinatown in Kuala
Lumpur to one of the oldest Chinese ingredient
shops in KL founded in 1958 called Kwang Yeow
Heng. We met the owner, 92-year-old Mr. Hiah
who handles the cashier like the boss he is, all with
a smoking pipe in hand.
He fled to Malaysia from China after the
Sino-Japanese War and learned the ways of shop
keeping from his brother-in-law who owned one.
In 1958, Mr. Hiah branched out and opened his
own shop in Petaling Street next to Central Market
where he would personally transport his stock via
trishaw, a story of struggle he told with teary eyes.
Now 58 years later, Mr. Hiah’s shop is supplying
to restaurants and hotels while serving his regulars
with top notch ingredients sourced from around
the world. We’re talking about sea cucumber from
South Africa, abalone from Mexico and cashew
nuts from India.
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