Popular Ipoh Curry Mee Hawkers Open 2nd Outlet, New Stall Sells Sio Bak & Char Siew Too
Malaysian father-and-son hawkers Steven, 47, and Jacky Cheah, 23, have attracted a following for their Ipoh curry mee at their stall Jian Zao Ipoh Curry Noodles in Ang Mo Kio since opening last September. Three weeks ago, they expanded with a second outlet in Jalan Besar, where the elder Cheah (a former SBS bus captain and third-gen hawker whose family specialised in Ipoh curry noodles) also whips up roast pork, char siew, chicken and duck alongside curry mee. The meat can be enjoyed as toppings on your noodles – priced identically to the AMK branch, starting at $4.50 for the soupy or dry version – or with rice. Think chicken rice ($3), char siew rice ($3.50), roasted pork rice ($3.50) and duck rice ($4).
It’s no random pivot. The house-made roasts are a replacement for the supplier-bought meat toppings that characterise Ipoh-style curry noodles. And that’s why the new outlet’s signboard is rather confusing, with a mix of curry mee and roast meat images crammed on it.
Meanwhile, the original Ang Mo Kio outlet is now helmed by Jacky and will continue to serve only noodles.
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Business was “stable” at HQ, leading to expansion
Steven had already been hunting for a suitable location for another outlet when 8days.sg spoke to him last year. “Business at [the AMK outlet] was stable already. I wanted a second outlet, to test out selling my own char siew and roasted pork with Malaysian flavours,” he tells us.
Thankfully, you shouldn’t expect a long wait at either of his stalls – Steven says that only a “short queue” forms during peak periods.
Why Jalan Besar
That location ended up being Jalan Besar. The reason? “Because there just happened to be a space there, it’s as simple as that. And that space was occupied by a stall that sold roasted meat. They wanted to stop, so we took over,” he says affably.
Takes around five hours to roast meat, but “worth the effort”
The hawker, who already knew how to cook roasted meat “but lacked the equipment and space [at the old stall]”, takes around “five hours” to roast the meat in a gas-fired oven. Which begs the question: why go through all that trouble when curry mee sells well enough on its own?
Steven reveals that getting roasted meat from a supplier wasn’t ideal, as “the quality of the food wasn’t stable, and there was no way to control what we were getting”. He adds: “It’s worth the effort [of cooking it from scratch myself], as customers can taste that the food is better”.
“[And] since we can cook the roasted meat at the stall [in Jalan Besar], why not sell it too, so that more people can taste our roasted char siew and sio bak?” he adds. He also shares that while both roast meat and Ipoh curry mee share the limelight here, it’s the latter that customers order the most.
Curry gravy supplied by Ang Mo Kio stall
The roast meats are transported to the Ang Mo Kio outlet daily to be used as curry mee toppings. The AMK stall in turn sends supplies of curry gravy cooked by Jacky to the newer Jln Besar stall. “He’s already gotten the taste of the ‘secret’ recipe right. I’ll still check on him, but I’m confident that he can handle it,” says his proud dad.
The details
Jian Zao Ipoh Curry Noodles’ second branch is at Blk 638 Veerasamy Rd, S200638. Open daily, 9am – 5pm.
The original outlet is at Blk 332 Ang Mo Kio Ave 1, S560332. Tel: 8903-0877. Open daily, 9am – 5pm. Delivery via Grabfood and Foodpanda. More info via Facebook.
Photos: Aik Chen, Jian Zao Ipoh Curry Noodles
All photos cannot be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg
