Aussie butcher Adam Speering stuns world with Asian wet market job
This Aussie expat always knew what he wanted to do for a job, but he never imagined it would be like this.
Australian Adam Speering always wanted to be a butcher but he never imagined it would be on the streets of one of Asia’s biggest wet markets.
“I’ve been in Singapore now for 10 years,” he told CNA Insider’s Singapore Hour.
“This is mine and my wife’s shop.
“The environment when I come here in the morning is very quiet, there’s only me and a few stores open at that time of morning, then after about a couple of hours, you start to hear the people coming through and it starts to get a bit louder. Maybe bring more people.”
Mr Speering’s store, Outback Butchery, opened its doors at the Lor 4 wet market in Te Paio two months ago.
Growing up in Sydney, he knew he wanted to be a butcher from a very young age and dropped out of school at 14 to begin to learn the trade and follow in his father’s footsteps.
The now 42-year-old’s trajectory changed when he met his wife Ann on a night out when she was holidaying in Australia.
The pair wed in 2015 and later decided to return to Ann’s home country of Singapore to raise their children.
“You don’t know what to expect when you get to the other country,” Mr Speering said.
“So it was a bit difficult to start with, but because Ann’s family is here … they’re very close family.
“It took me about a month to get used to it here. Then after that it’s just like normal.”
When Mr Speering arrives at the store in the mornings, his first line of business is to make the sausages – the most popular item – then moves on to preparing the minces, patties and meatballs.
“It takes about three to four hours to prep everything in the morning,” he said.
In the video, Mr Speering points to his cuts, adding: “We are a specialised sort of store … we specialise in handcrafted stuff, sausages, patties, all value-added items.”
“I will buy from my supplier, then I will give to you for cheaper.
“I only chose $9 (for) one kilo.
“This one is good for stew, but this one you must cook for very long, this one you don’t have to, this one is more tender than the brisket – it’s good to pass on that knowledge to the customer.
“We get a better interaction with the customer, that’s why we have a lot more repeat customers as well, because we are not just like your normal wet market butcher.”
The biggest challenge has been the language barrier with Mr Speering not able to speak Mandarin, and many of his customers not knowing English.
The solution? Hand gestures.
“The language barrier is not so bad, but when they can’t speak English to me, normally we do like hand gestures, like our shoulder or leg or, you know, like body parts where they want,” he said.
“Then we sort of communicate with sign language.
“I think generally most of the time it’s very funny because we all just point at the body part, then we have a giggle after it.”
He said on the home side of things, he enjoys raising his children in Singapore as it is “safer” and offers a lot more “opportunity” when it comes to learning about different cultures.
“My family, they love it here, so for me, home is where the heart is,” Mr Speering said.
“My kids love it, my wife is from here.
“I think I miss Australia, but at the same time, I’m comfortable here in Singapore.
“I can still go back home any time – but for me, home is here in Singapore.”
Trump says nations agree to ceasefire talks
Donald Trump said the nations have agreed to “quickly work out” a ceasefire after border clashes have left over 30 people dead and 150,000 people displaced.
Major new travel warning for Aussies
Australians have been warned to exercise a “high degree of caution” in Thailand amid an escalating border conflict with Cambodia that has left dozens of people dead.
New 50-year UK, Aussie military pact signed
Defence and Foreign Ministers from the United Kingdom and Australia have signed a new 50-year military pact.