S’porean Actor Scalded By Soup & Food Court Auntie Allegedly Inflexible in Providing Ice

If I don’t finish this article before my deadline, I’m going to be in hot soup with my editor for the… how many times has this happened already???

Editor: “Hey! Are you complaining instead of doing your work again?”

Oops.

Well, some hot soup actually burned someone else recently.

The Story

Andie Chen, a Singaporean actor who used to work with Mediacorp, was at Food Junction @ NEX shopping mall trying to have a simple dinner with his wife Kate Pang (also an ex-Mediacorp celebrity) after returning from Cambodia where he has a three-month long action-packed shoot.

He bought a bowl of hot soup and was headed back to his seat.

This common, everyday scene had a catch that would ruin everything: the tray had not been dried.

The soup bowl on the tray slipped and scalded the actor’s torso pretty badly. This image shows obvious swelling, blistering and redness.

… ouch. That looks like it really hurts.

His wife, Kate Pang, leapt into action.

She went to the drink stall in the food court to ask for ice from the auntie at the counter, explaining that her husband had been scalded by hot soup.

Seems simple right? Someone gets burned by hot soup, give them ice. Shouldn’t be a problem.

But it was.

The auntie refused to give her ice, saying that they don’t sell ice cubes there.

She repeated herself many times, trying to get across the point that her husband desperately needed ice to cool his burns. She even offered to pay more for the ice but to no avail.

Finally, the auntie gave in, giving her exactly five ice cubes after another auntie told her to “just give her some”.

Should’ve Tried a Different Tact

Pang concluded in an Instagram post on the matter that it would’ve been easier for her to buy a drink from the stall as it comes with a free cup of ice.

Chen took to sharing the matter on his Instagram.

Together with the pictures of the burns and a video of him yelling in pain as his wife tended to them, he urged local food courts to dry their trays.

He also good-naturedly joked about the matter.

He commented on how ironic it was that while the 8-hour fight scene he was a part of didn’t leave a scratch on him, yet a simple dinner with his wife left him with some pretty serious injuries.

Chen said he had no time to go to the doctor. Instead, his wife would be treating him with essential oils.

Netizens responses with both support, humour and concern.

Most people expressed well wishes for the actor’s recovery. Some agreed that food courts needed to take customers’ safety more seriously, expressing that they know of similar incidents.

Others focused on the auntie’s response. Although many chided her for her stinginess, some pointed out that she was only adhering to the food court’s policy of not selling ice to customers.

But seriously?

However, there should be exemptions to such rules.

For example, when a customer desperately needs ice for a valid reason, like Chen did, sellers who give customers free ice should be excused.

This incident is one of many that raises the question if Singapore is economically focused to a fault.

Or the old joke that’s evergreen: Singaporeans always follow instructions to the T.

Nevertheless, all of us at Goody Feed wishes Andie Chen a speedy recovery!