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!
HEAR:
SEE:
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).