One would think that being born with no fingers and being stricken with cancer would deter 70-year-old Poon Sum Hay from making sachima by hand, which is extremely gruelling work.
However, this has only fuelled Poon’s desire to soldier on, making him one of Singapore’s last traditional sachima makers.
Made sachima for 50 years
For the uninitiated, sachima is a snack made of strands of fried batter bound together with sugar syrup.
Poon has been at the helm of Pan Ji Cooked Food for the past 50 years, a stall which he inherited from his father after learning the craft at 12 years old.
Although Poon’s born without any fingers on his left hand, this hasn’t stopped him from waking up at 6am daily to make fresh sachima, an eight-hour process that requires kneading and flattening dough before deep-frying it.
“You can’t take any shortcuts, otherwise the result will be completely different,” he told Shin Min Daily News.
Diagnosed with cancer
In December 2024, Poon experienced abnormal bowel movements and went to the hospital for a check-up, where it was revealed he had colon cancer.
Following a surgery which saw a portion of his large intestine removed, Poon was hospitalised for eight days and underwent 16 rounds of chemotherapy upon recovering.
This caused him to close his stall as he needed time to recuperate.
However, Poon grew bored and missed making sachima, leading him to reopen his stall just six months later in August 2025.
Future of stall
When asked whether one needed “real skills” to make sachima, Poon said none is required and reiterated that it all boiled down to one’s passion for the craft.
It’s all about how much effort the person puts in. If the learner lacks passion and sincerity, the result won’t taste good.”
Poon, who doesn’t have children of his own, seemed unfazed by the prospect of having no one to hand over the stall to, adding: “If there is a successor, there is. If there isn’t, there isn’t.”
Despite an increase in his snacks, Poon continues to see a steady stream of customers patronising his stall.
His girlfriend of 10 years, who helps out at the stall regularly, told Shin Min that the stall had customers flying in from Ipoh and Hong Kong just to buy sachima.
She also expressed pride over Poon’s achievements, adding that he was a very “down-to-earth person”.
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