*The photos were taken during the Conditional MCO.
TAN AH LYE has an unusual profession. Every day, save on Mondays, he wakes just as Penang goes into a slumber. He makes his way to Chowrasta Market, reaching it at 1am. From nearby storage and warehouses, Tan extracts stalls and carts and places them in their designated locations, ready for vendors as they arrive later to display their goods to start their working day.
Some sell clothes and jewellery, others hawk fruits and food like chee cheong chok (pig intestine porridge), economical fried bee hoon and fried rice. At 3am, when the fried bee hoon seller arrives, Tan helps her set up the stove before proceeding to the more demanding task of moving the pots and trays of food from the economical rice seller’s car to her stall. One misstep or a stumble, and hours of cooking would be wasted.
