Focus on Females in F&B: Awfully Chocolate & Sinpopo Brand’s Lyn Lee Loves this Char Siew

Hi Makan Kakis, 

This week I had the honour of visiting Foodie Friend Lyn Lee at her latest F&B project for a meal and chat.

Lyn is no stranger to us in Singapore, as the founder of Awfully Chocolate & Sinpopo Brand, but this is really the first time I’ve had a chance to delve a little deeper into how her business started and what makes her tick.

Over coffee and pandan coconut drinks; crayfish curry, beef cheek rendang and more at the new Sinpopo Flagship Restaurant at Tangs, Lyn looked back on the last 25 years and waxed lyrical on a whole range of topics.

From how Awfully Chocolate was born from one single chocolate cake recipe; to branching out into Sinpopo Brand; to advice for budding F&B entrepreneurs, to championing young talents (there’s an Awfully Chocolate “scholarship”!); to who she’d invite to her fantasy dinner party (3 letters and a legendary local leader might ring some bells) – have a listen to what she had to say in the podcasts below.

As always, she was also ready with a makan recommendation, one that will please lovers of chicken rice and roasted meats!

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Lyn’s always been tremendous at sniffing out some of the best Eastside eats and this one ranks high on her list for excellent chicken rice and roasted meats like char siew and siew yoke (crispy pork belly). It’s a stall located in an old corner coffeeshop along Tanjong Katong Road and she used to visit it almost every week. Pre-Covid, the stall would see long lunchtime queues at least 20 customers deep.

When I went to check it out on a Sunday morning right at opening time, there were already 3 customers ahead of me at 9.15am. An attractive array of freshly-roasted delights hung enticingly in the stall’s glass display – slabs of crispy pork, chunky strips of char siew, glistening roasted ducks, whole roasted chicken and even a couple of poached chickens (pak cham gai in Cantonese).

Fiery-Hot Old School Wanton Mee

• LISTEN: & download the podcast of this week’s fiery-hot episode
• READ: the full story at CNA Lifestyle.
• WATCH: Denise try this makan recommendation on GOLD 905’s facebook page.

If you think spice is nice and are looking for dishes that really turn up the heat, then this wanton mee stall is for you. Fellow hot head and foodie friend Chef Shen Tan of OG Lemak recommended I try the Eunos branch of a Dunman Food Centre stall that’s famous for serving up some of the spiciest noodles in Singapore. I gamely placed my asbestos taste buds at the mercy of Mr Sam Ng, whose family owns the two Dunman Char Siew Wan Ton Mee outlets. He’s in charge of the Eunos branch, which opened in March of 2019.

STAY HOME & EAT – Fuss-free DIY French Feast

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• Click to listen/ download podcast – catch up with Chef Anthony Yeoh & how we can help local F&B revive & recover post Circuit Breaker.
• Click to listen/ download podcast of this week’s fancy yet fuss-free French DIY feast!

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Our Makan Kaki Chef Anthony Yeoh (of Summer Hill French Bistro in Sunset Way) returns after a long hiatus to catch up and fill us in on how it’s been for local F&B establishments facing the challenges brought on by Covid-19. With Phase 2 beginning tomorrow and dine-in options at restaurants finally back, he shares with us how we can, as customers, help local F&B revive and recover (have a listen to our podcast – link is above). 

Also, I had the joy of testing out Summer Hill’s DIY Eats and “cooking” for my family recently. I use inverted commas because while I indeed produced an impressive feast that looked and tasted good, I did none of the heavy-lifting! Everything has been fully cooked by the Summer Hill team, all you need to do is simple reheating. It’s what Chef Anthony calls quality comfort for everyone. The DIY Eats menu is available in Single serves & Family serves to fit all occasions. Case in point, Father’s Day this Sunday 21 June!

Thanks to the team at Summer Hill, all the back-breaking, time-consuming prep & expert cooking has been done. A beautiful box packed with all the prepared food neatly vacuum sealed, along with precise instructions was delivered to my doorstep (you can also opt to do a pick up at the restaurant).

My family and I tucked into a fancy French feast of Kurobuta pork collar, wagyu beef Provençale stew & Summer Hill’s signature roast chicken. All were Single Serve orders, but these 3 choices fed 4 of us comfortably, which is to me, great value for money for good quality food.

STAY HOME & EAT – Charcoal-Roasted Meats

HEAR:
Click here to listen/ download the podcast of this week’s charcoal roasted episode.

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As we count down to the easing of the circuit breaker, how about a charcoal roasted meat feast? This week, have a gorgeously smokey set meal from RV Roasted Delight delivered straight to your doorstep at a reasonable price! Their meal sets for three to 8 people range from $21.80 to $71.80 and set meals for two range from $18.80 – 20.80, which is the one I chose. Package C for 2 consists of ¼ roast duck (upper quarter – which means I got a lovely juicy leg, breast meat and a little rib meat), plus an extra choice of 2 meats – choose from roast duck, chicken, char siew, roasted crispy pork belly or sausage. I went with the classic combo of roasted pork and char siew. White rice and oyster sauce vegetable with fried shallot rounded off the meal.

The roasted duck, in my opinion was the clear winner – really beautifully seasoned, with quite a refined taste that wasn’t too game-y or overpowering.

STAY HOME & EAT – DIY Wanton Noodles

HEAR:
Click to listen/ download podcast of this week’s delightfully do-it-yourself episode!

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Bee Kee Wanton Noodles created in my kitchen from their DIY kit!

This week, let’s bring on the best of both worlds and combine cooking at home with hawker quality wanton mee, all in a DIY kit delivered straight to your doorstep. You may already know Bee Kee Wanton Noodle in Lorong Lew Lian for their truffle & traditional wanton mee and now you can reproduce the latter in the comfort of your own kitchen!

Here’s what you get in the kit: 40 wantons, 10 bundles of noodles, 3 jars of sauces (crispy lard chunks sold separately).

I filled up a quick online order form for the Bee Kee wanton noodle kit, consisting of 10 bundles of their fresh thin egg noodles, 40 freshly wrapped pork wantons and 3 jars of sauce – homemade chilli, fragrant oil & signature soy sauce. Delivery was prompt and I received a text message with cooking instructions that were easy to follow and foolproof. I managed to turn out delicious wanton noodles of my own in less than 5 minutes!

Alternative Asian-Style Roasts for Christmas

‘Tis the season for roasted turkeys, glazed hams and other festive eats. But why not embrace the flavours of Asia instead and celebrate with Cantonese-style roasted meats?

After hearing about this place from my Gold 905 Makan Kaki Chef Lim Yew Aun of The Cicheti Group, I hurried over to Keong Saik Road for some season’s eatings in the form of char siew (barbequed pork) and siew yoke (crispy pork belly), with some roasted duck thrown in for good measure. One bite and I knew I was going to have myself a tasty, er, merry little Christmas, thanks to Foong Kee Coffee Shop.

• LISTEN: & download the podcast of this week’s roasty episode.
• READ: the full story at CNA Lifestyle.
• WATCH: Denise try this makan recommendation on GOLD 905’s facebook page.

With chef-owner Derrick Wong Wai Chiew

TASTE: Foong Kee Traditional Charcoal Roasted is located at
Foong Kee Coffee Shop, 6 Keong Saik Road, Singapore 089114.
It’s open Mondays to Saturdays, 11am – 8pm. They close on Sundays and public holidays.

Order the Porridge at this Duck Place!

HEAR:
Click to listen/ download podcast of this week’s hot episode of carby comfort!

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Greetings Greedies! This week, our Makan Kaki Chef Ming Tan of JAM @ Siri House returns with one of his most favourite dishes of all time. So where can we find the best Cantonese Pei Dan Chok (Century Egg Porridge) in Chef Ming’s opinion? Surprisingly, at any of the Imperial Treasure outlets! This Singapore success story in F & B really excels in the most basic and simplest of things and if they’ve got that right, you know everything else delicious will follow. Specifically, Chef Ming is drawn to the transcendental porridge lovingly and painstakingly created by the chefs at Paragon’s Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck. Yes, it’s funny one would go to a Peking Duck restaurant for pork and egg porridge, but trust him, it’s really really good! But before we get to that, of course their Peking duck is fantastic, as are their roast meats. And there are 2 other dishes Chef Ming wants to highlight.

ROASTED MEATS RULE GHIM MOH!

HEAR:
Click here to listen/ download the podcast of this week’s episode!

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This week, Roasted Meat fans, Our Makan Kaki, Chef-Owner of Summer Hill Bistro, Anthony Yeoh has a treat for you. If you’re looking for Malaysian Cantonese style roasted meat, you’ve got to pay this Ghim Moh stall a visit.

Jiu Jiang Shao La (九江烧腊) often boasts super-long queues & for good reason. First of all, their meats are roasted fresh in a roaster right in their stall. The result is quality meat that has customers coming back over and over for more.