Young couple quit jobs to chase F&B dream, spend $25k setting up minced meat noodle stall

For almost five years, 26-year-old Lam Geng Han fantasised about setting up his own F&B business. And that dream has turned into reality.

He finally opened his own minced meat noodle stall on Feb 10 with his fiancee, Chelsea Goh, 24.

But while it is a dream come true, the couple reveals to AsiaOne that the F&B life is no walk in the park, especially since they started in the midst of a pandemic.

When we meet them one afternoon a little after the lunch rush hour, the couple is cheery but visibly exhausted.

However, they generously carve out some time to have a chat with us about their lives as young hawkers as well as their brainchild, No. 25 Minced Meat Noodle, which is aptly named after their anniversary date.

From Burger & Lobster to a humble hawker stall

Prior to setting up the hawker stall, Geng Han actually worked as a junior sous chef at Burger & Lobster and a chef de partie at seafood restaurant Scaled by Ah Hua Kelong.

So, why did he decide to step outside his comfort zone and open a hawker stall instead of a restaurant?

Geng Han admits that for the longest time, he had actually considered helming his own restaurant.

However, he started to feel that young chefs like him should give some love to the local hawker scene.

"The old taste of Singapore's hawker food is slowly dying, and that actually struck me. I felt like I had to do something about the hawker culture," Geng Han tells us.

Eventually, it was Chelsea who gave him the final push.

"I wouldn't have done this without her because I'm a very cautious person. She has a very aggressive character, so she pushed me to actually do it," he says.

"Do only lah. Fail already then we talk," Chelsea quips.

And that's not all. To show Geng Han that she really believed he should chase his dreams, Chelsea even quit her stable accounting job to help him start the business.

The birth of No. 25 Minced Meat Noodle

Apart from their frustration at the lack of good minced meat noodle options in the market, the main inspiration behind No. 25 Minced Meat Noodle was actually a now-defunct stall at Eunos that the couple used to frequent.

Geng Han was determined to inject some of those nostalgic flavours into his own rendition of the dish, so he and Chelsea would experiment with various recipes at home.

The whole process took around a year because they wanted to perfect every element of the dish, they reveal. And they did this all while they were still juggling their respective full-time jobs.

"Every step along the way, we kept changing things because we are always unsatisfied," says Geng Han. 

"She has a very, very high taste when it comes to food. If I can satisfy her, I know I can open my stall," he adds with a laugh.

Eventually, after their recipes passed the taste test, the next step was to find a physical store.

"During our lunch breaks, we would run around looking for a suitable location and we would have to make it back by the end of our break so we could get back to work. It was quite a hectic start to our business," Geng Han recalls.

In the end, they settled on their current location at Bukit Merah because they loved the vibe of the place, so much so that they were willing to endure a more arduous commute on the daily — from Pasir Ris, to be exact.

All that was left to be done was to actually set up the stall, which the couple reveals cost about $25,000 in total.

As they had limited cash on had, they share that they had to scrimp and save, and be resourceful when it came to renovations.

For instance, Chelsea engaged her dad, who is in the metal recycling scene, to help them procure some second-hand stainless steel tables.

Her uncle also helped with the drilling while her best friend pitched in to spruce up the stall.

"If not for the help, we would have spent a bomb," Chelsea says gratefully.

The struggles of being a young hawker

While this is a dream come true for Geng Han, he confesses that the entire thing has been pretty physically taxing, and he understands why many youngsters avoid this line of work.

"It's very very tiring. It's small, it's crowded, it's hot, there's no air conditioning, it's sweaty. You just have to grit your teeth and get over with it."

Chelsea chimes in to add that she wasn't entirely used to the environment either and adjusting to the hawker life was no easy feat.

"I've worked in an office for six to seven years already and suddenly I'm doing this. But it's okay, I'll get there," she says determinedly.

Apart from that, the hours are long too. At the start, they worked around 14 to 15 hours a day as they were still "getting used to the flow". This also meant that they would reach the stall as early as 6am and only reach home at around 9pm. 

As of now, it's just the pair of them working tirelessly almost every day in the kitchen. While they do need some additional hands on deck, they say they can't afford to hire anyone just yet.

"Our profit margins are very tight. People think hawkers increase prices to earn more money, but the food prices have increased like crazy," Geng Han elaborates.

Running a business with your partner

While there are horror stories of couples who have broken up after setting up a business together, Chelsea and Geng Han aren't too afraid of that. They feel that as long as both parties are mature, things can work out.

"You must learn when to let go of certain things like your feelings. It's a lot of giving way to each other," he says.

He does admit that the pair do have tiffs once in a while but emphasises that this is completely normal.

"We know the kind of differences we have, but we manage it and we will sit down and talk and explain ourselves to reach a middle ground," adds Chelsea.

"By the time we knock off and go home, it's like nothing happened at all."

They've also talked about the probability of the business affecting their relationship and agreed that if it ever hits that point, they'll put the relationship first and step out of the business.

"I would rather save the relationship than the business," Chelsea says solemnly.

Tonkotsu-based broth with a local touch

What makes the bak chor mee at No. 25 Minced Meat Noodle stand out from its competitors is its thick, tonkotsu-style pork bone broth.

To retain a local touch, Geng Han decided to incorporate traditional ingredients such as ti por (sole fish) to the gelatinous pork bone broth. All in all, this takes at least eight hours to prepare and the result is a robust, flavour-packed soup that hits all the right spots.

I ended up ordering their Signature Minced Meat Noodle ($7). The noodles came separated from the soup, which I appreciated, as this prevented the noodles from getting soggy.

The soup itself, which was the star of the show for me, was cloudier and creamier than your regular minced meat noodle soups. It came loaded with an abundance of ingredients like minced pork, sliced lean pork, pork liver, and even fried fish maw, herh keow (fish dumplings) and even fish maw, so you get a little bit of something in every spoonful.

The noodles were also perfectly al dente and came tossed in Geng Han's homemade chilli sauce, giving the dish an addictive, fiery kick.

Address: Block 161 Bukit Merah Central #01-3749 Singapore 150161
Opening hours: 10am to 3:30pm, closed on Sundays

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melissateo@asiaone.com