Catch of the Day

One of Singapore's last three kelongs resists extinction by serving up the island's most authentic farm-to-table story, told by fish farmer-turned-restaurateur Wong Jing Kai

- By Dawson Tan

From having hawker culture inscribed on the Unesco cultural heritage list, transforming its identity from public nuisance in the colonial era to the national treasure of today, to turning nearly every surface into prime real estate, Singapore has long perfected the art of reinvention.

Yet, its maritime heritage has become so invisible that most locals would struggle to locate the country on a map, let alone recognise its seafaring gastronomy on a menu. Where once dozens of kelongs—wooden platforms built on stilts over shallow coastal waters and used primarily for fishing or fish farming—dotted the island's shores, only three remain today, a number stark enough to raise the eyebrow of anyone with even a passing interest in cultural preservation.

One such outpost is Ah Hua Kelong, where we meet Wong Jing Kai, a digital marketing graduate turned accidental custodian of one of Singapore's last kelongs. Standing on the weathered planks of his platform along the Straits of Johor, Wong surveys his domain with the weary contentment of a man who has spent more than a decade trying to convince his fellow citizens that fresh, local seafood is worth eating.

“If we were to run [the kelong] as it is right now, I don’t think we’ll pass the 10-year mark,” he admits with brutal honesty.

For Wong, it all began with a simple question: “Why didn’t I know that kelongs existed?” That realisation, when it came, was less an epiphany than a wake-up call. Back in 2013, he recalls, “there was a big gap between local fish farms and local fish consumption”, and so he set out to bridge it. “I made my first delivery [to a buyer] on April 14, 2014,” he adds without missing a beat, and the rest, as he puts it, is history.