The Stories Behind: The marketing executive turned hawker with her own take on nasi lemak cakes
SINGAPORE — Although the lunch rush hour was nearly over, Ms Aries Chan, owner of the Coco Ricer at Tiong Bahru Hawker Centre, was busy accepting orders from customers, included a hefty takeaway order of eight nasi lemak sets.
Every so often, the internet thrusts ordinary people into the public eye. But as quickly as they come, they tend to fade away from the limelight soon after. In this series, TODAY journalists talk to some of these viral sensations to find out who they really are behind the social media screen and how their lives were affected by their fleeting fame.
- Ms Aries Chan left a job as a marketing executive to become a hawker and introduce her own version of nasi lemak cakes to Singapore
- She opened two hawker stalls, in Tiong Bahru and Punggol, in the span of three years
- She recently made waves online when noted food critic KF Seetoh said in a Facebook post Ms Chan was about to close both hawker stalls
- Ms Chan said she has "cherished memories" from her time in the food sector such as being a part of the Singapore Tourism Board's promotional video for Tiong Bahru
- Though she won't return to work at a stall anytime soon, she hopes to explore other ways to expand her business such as franchising her recipe and bottling her special sambal chilli
To be honest with you, if I didn't start out as a hawker, I don't think that I will get all the different experiences and exposure that I now cherish.
BECOMING A HAWKER
Before she was a full-time hawker, Ms Chan worked in the corporate world as a marketing executive though she had dabbled with the idea of going into a food and beverage business.
A few years back, after learning about the growing popularity of nasi lemak cakes in Malaysia, Ms Chan started to research whether a similar business had been set up in Singapore.
When she could find no such business, Ms Chan decided to introduce the nasi lemak cake to Singapore and travelled with her husband to Kuala Lumpur to buy a sample.
"I started to study the cake on my own — how it is made, what goes into the layers and then created my own version of the nasi lemak cake," Ms Chan said.
She eventually developed a side business online called Nasi Lemak Indulgence selling her nasi lemak cakes.
The idea to set up a hawker business came after customers asked if she had thought about setting up a shop to sell nasi lemak itself.
She said she did not want to set up a brick and mortar business that sold only nasi lemak cakes as it was a celebratory treat bought for special occasions.
When I asked her why she chose to sell nasi lemak, Ms Chan smiled and said: "I find the taste between Singapore's nasi lemak and Malaysia's different so I thought it would be a versatile dish to bring a bit of the authentic Malaysian taste."
Over a few years, Ms Chan experimented with different recipes that she picked up from her sisters, YouTube, and even a nasi lemak maker in Kuala Lumpur in order to develop her own unique recipe.
She said that part of what made her nasi lemak dish stand out from the crowd was her use of fresh, high quality ingredients such as fried anchovies instead of the common ikan bilis, bigger ground nuts, mackerel for her otah and blue pea rice that is steamed twice.
Even after Ms Chan won her bid for a Tiong Bahru stall space, her start as a hawker was not without its challenges.
For example, in making the transition from home kitchen to hawker with bigger pots, she had difficulty replicating the quality of her nasi lemak rice.
Recalling one time she cooped herself in her stall for four days to experiment, Ms Chan teared up as she shared how she felt defeated and had burst into tears when a fellow hawker spoke to her.
"He asked me 'how was everything' and I just burst into tears in front of him," said Ms Chan. "He then told me it's okay and gave me support by telling me to take my time because people will soon appreciate my food."
HARDSHIPS AS EXPERIENCE
Even though Ms Chan was hardly a seasoned hawker, having opened her Tiong Bahru stall only in March 2021, she opened a second stall in Punggol, less than two years later.
In December 2022, she opened her hawker stall at One Punggol Hawker Centre where she sold a lesser known Malaysian dish, nasi kandar.
However, with the rising cost of ingredients and her constant struggle to find enough staff, Ms Chan eventually realised that there was no way she could sustain her businesses any longer.
"It was when one of my staff told me that he wanted to resign that I had a discussion with my husband and finally decided that I should stop," said Ms Chan.
She also joked that it was "just nice" that she decided to close her business in March, exactly three years after she opened her Tiong Bahru stall in March 2021.
Despite the setback, Ms Chan shared that the three years as a young up-and-coming hawker was difficult and challenging but it also had its great moments.
When I asked her to name the single most memorable aspect of her hawker journey, besides her customers, she laughed and asked if she could state three instead.
"The first would be my collaboration with the Singapore Tourism Board where they approached me to promote Tiong Bahru, even though I didn't live around here!" said Ms Chan.
The second was being invited to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's Chinese New Year event at the Istana where she got to feed more than 3,000 people, and the last was being awarded as one of Singapore's food masters, referring to the annual awards in the food sector.
"At that time, I was only in business for eight months when I got nominated," said Ms Chan.
She added that if she had not chosen to become a hawker, she would not have been able to gain all these experiences that would come with running an F&B business.
Seeing how she beamed with pride at her achievements from the past three years, I asked her if she would still continue her journey as a food business owner even after she shutters her two stalls for good.
Ms Chan said that she will continue her nasi lemak cake business but is already looking at plans to expand.
These include possibly offering her recipe for franchise and bottling up her sambal chilli for sale worldwide.
"It is a bittersweet feeling but I think it's time for me to move on to my next journey," said Ms Chan.
