Young Malaysian Hawkers Serve Hearty Ipoh Curry Mee & Chee Cheong Fun At Jurong West Stall
Wang Cai styles its signature dish after the famous curry mee from Yee Fatt eatery in Ipoh.
Ilsa Chan
13 Sep 2022 at 15:52
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Wang Caiipoh curry meechee cheong funYong Tau Foocurry chickenhawker
Mention Ipoh food and the eponymous hor fun or white coffee probably come to mind. While these are more commonly found in Singapore, or at least local versions of them, less ubiquitous is Ipoh-style curry mee. This is part of the reason why Ipoh-born Tay Yee Sheng (middle), 26, decided to open a hawker stall peddling his favourite dish from his hometown.
Called Wang Cai (prosperity in Chinese), the three-month-old stall, located in a rather ulu coffeeshop in Jurong West, serves up both soup and dry versions of the noodles, as well as other curry-centric dishes like curry chicken and chee cheong fun. You can’t miss the stall thanks to its brightly lit storefront, complete with larger-than-life signages featuring its menu and cute dog mascot eating, you guessed it, curry mee, near the front of the kopitiam (which also houses popular Fei Zhu Lok Lok stall opened by viral “chio bu” hawker Phyllis Seah).
The grub is prepared by Yee Sheng, his wife Ruby Thong, 24, and their business partner Yap Kang Ling, 31. The trio, all from Malaysia, quit their supervisor roles at Genki Sushi earlier this year to start Wang Cai.
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Yee Sheng (right) with his wife Ruby Thong and business partner Yap Kang Ling.
Worked in commercial kitchens for 10 years
Yee Sheng, who came to Singapore to study in 2013, may only be 26, but he’s had 10 years of experience in F&B, working in a variety of roles from server to store manager in restaurants like Coca Steamboat, Cedele and Genki Sushi. Though he doesn’t have any official experience as a chef, he learned the ropes of the kitchen during his stints at various restaurants.“Managers have to learn how to cook too, ’cos we need to know how everything works in order to run the restaurant well. We also help the chef when there’s a shortage in manpower,” the Singaporean PR tells 8days.sg in Mandarin.
“I did everything from slicing sashimi to making sushi and hand rolls at Genki Sushi. All the supervisors are qualified to be chefs ’cos we must undergo a strict assessment before we are employed. Though I was a floor manager, I preferred working in the kitchen and spent most of my time there.”
A love for curry and the desire to become a business owner were what inspired Yee Sheng to take the leap of faith and venture into the hawker trade.
“I also felt there are no good Ipoh-style curry mee in Singapore,” he says.
Compared to the Singapore-style curry mee that is more lemak, the Ipoh version, which uses less (or sometimes) no coconut milk, is more savoury, piquant, and aromatic with spices. It is commonly served with roast pork, char siew, tau pok, and long beans.
The millennial hawkers invested $30,000 to start Wang Cai, which opened at the end of June. Their second outlet, situated in a coffeeshop in an industrial estate in Sembawang, which is “like a franchise outlet”, opened a month ago.
“The boss of this kopitiam likes my curry mee so he suggested we open another outlet at his new coffee shop in Gambas. It is sort of like a franchise. I prepare the rempah for them and they have a cook that takes care of the cooking. I go there to QC the food daily,” says Yee Sheng.
