The line at Satay Man’s food stall will be long this weekend, as Lismore Car Boot Market customers say farewell

The lines at the Satay Man’s food stall will be long this weekend, as the Lismore Car Boot Market farewells a business partner who has been a much-loved stalwart for an impressive 33 years.

After 33 years Susanna and David Lau are retiring from the popular satay food business at the Lismore Car Boot Market which they have been part of for 33 years. Mrs Lau said they wanted to thank all their customers who have supported them over the years. "Without your patronage we would be nothing," she said.

For 33 years David and Susanna Lau have been the at the helm of Satay Man, one of the most popular food stalls at the Lismore Car Boot Market.

But after this Sunday, they will serve their last homemade satay, dim sim, spring roll and fried rice, hang up their aprons and enjoy a well-deserved retirement.

Mrs Lau said the pair, while looking forward to retirement, will definitely miss their wonderful customers.

She said they had spent more than half their lives at the market and long ago lost count of how many hundreds of thousands of satay sticks they must have cooked.

“We will miss our long-time customers who have supported us and we are sad to leave them,” Mrs Lau said.

“We would love to thank all the customers for their wonderful support because with them there is no us.”

The duo started out running the kitchen at the Lismore Golf Club before they had a restaurant in Goonellabah, but pared back to the Satay Man stall in 2017, Mrs Lau said.

When Mrs Lau heard that Lismore Car Boot Market manager Marney Bonner described them as “model stall holders,” she was very emotional.

“It is an honour for us to have such compliments,” she said.

Ms Bonner said the pair had been part of the market since 1988 and “had only missed maybe three markets in those years”.

“I consider them not only stall holders but also business partners,” she said.

”We will miss them very much.

“There is a waiting list for food stalls, it’s a movable feast.”

On social media, customers were generous with their good wishes for the couple’s future while lamnting the loss of their favourite food van.

Jessie Morelli wrote: “Literally been eating that satay for 20 years”, while Lorena Delaine said it was their chicken satay stick which started a “lifelong love of satay”.

By the sounds of it, the Lau’s will need to have extra food on hand to cope with their customers who will pop buy to wish to them well.