Clad in long sleeves shirt, hotel manager Jeffrey Lim shouts “tiga ringgit, tiga ringgit” by the curbside as a pasar malam trader would.

Holding up a placard that read "RM3 only", he beckons passing pedestrians and vehicles.

Outside Red Rock Hotel along Jalan Macalister in Penang, the hotel which he runs, a troop of chefs and hotel workers prepare food, like how hawkers do.

For Lim, desperate times call...