Chen Tianwen Now Sells Ready-To-Eat Meals Like Porridge & Spicy Chicken Hotpot Online

This is the first time Tianwen and his partners, who also run events company Emperor Entertainment Productions, are venturing into F&B. With events almost non-existent due to the ongoing pandemic, they had to pivot the business to survive.

“We have been running our entertainment events company for 12 years. But since the pandemic, we’ve only had one or two jobs. It’s hard to survive, so we’ve pivoted to do this,” Tianwen tells 8days.sg.

“A lot of people are staying home and ordering food via delivery now ’cos they don’t dare to dine out — myself included — so we decided to offer ready-to-eat meals. They are not only convenient, but also cheaper than if you were to order [regular food] delivery.”

They toyed with the idea of creating their own line of chilled and frozen meals more than a year ago, but put it on the back burner due to their lack of experience in F&B. It was only after a chance meeting with someone who runs a food production facility four months ago that the plans were set in motion. They invested around $5,000 into R&D and manufacturing their products, and Mr Lazy Bum was born.

“We wouldn’t dare venture into this business if we hadn’t met [the manufacturer]. The market is too competitive, and we didn’t know how to get our foot in the door. You need to know someone with experience and the expertise to help you,” he says.

The decision to create ready meals was also driven by Tianwen’s observations of the growing appetite for convenient and easy to prepare food products in the market.

“These days, a lot of young couples are time-starved and cannot or don’t want to cook. They prefer to tapow or cook instant noodles, and the lazy ones will order food delivery, so we thought why not create tasty and healthier pre-cooked meals and all you need to do is heat it up and eat,” he says.

This is also why they decided to name their brand Mr Lazy Bum, aka ‘Lan Ren Bang’ (loosely translated as “help lazy people”) in Chinese. “We want to help the lazy people out there,” says Tianwen.

And when it came to creating a brand mascot, Tianwen was the natural choice ’cos he is the “fattest in the group”. Not that he minds, in fact, he thinks it’s a good idea.

“I’m more familiar to the public, so using me as the face of the brand will make it more memorable. Plus, I rarely cook, so I am considered a lazy bum too. I can only make instant noodles,” he laughs.

Mr Lazy Bum currently offers 10 products, with more in the pipeline such as a lobster collagen broth and bird’s nest soup. Prices range from $8.80 for a 600g pack of fresh clam porridge to $26 for a 1kg pack of tomato lobster collagen broth.

According to Tianwen, all the products are “cooked from scratch at high temperatures” in a food production facility before they are packaged in pouches. They do not contain MSG or preservatives and can last for six months. The products are sold exclusively on their website and there are no plans to offer them in supermarkets or convenience stores at the moment.

“[We foresee] A lot of issues will arise if we do that. We will have to leave stocks at the supermarket, which is fine if sales are good. Otherwise, we won’t get money for a few months. What’s more, [depending on the payment terms] some supermarkets will only pay you three months later. We prefer to just sell it online ourselves,” reasons Tianwen.

The hotpot set comes with a spicy chicken soup base made with ingredients like garlic, herbs, dried chillies, chicken broth (1kg), and chicken chunks (300g), as well as a small pack of dried chillies and peppercorn for those who wish to dial up the heat.

To prepare the hotpot soup, heat up the spicy soup base and when it comes to a boil, add the chicken broth and meat. You can adjust the amount of chicken broth depending on how spicy you want your soup to be. After adding the entire packet of broth, the medium spicy soup was the perfect level of heat and not tongue-numbing at all. We like that it has a slight herbal flavour and is fragrant and comforting. The portion of chicken (our pack came with 13 pieces consisting of a mix of breast and thigh) is just only enough for one to two pax so prepare some extra ingredients like vegetables and shrooms for a more filling meal.

The texture of the porridge is thick like Cantonese congee and we’re impressed by how flavourful it is. Tianwen tells us that the porridge is cooked in pork bone and chicken broth and the dried scallops give it a briny, umami richness. We are pleasantly surprised by the amount of scallops too. If you are having it with the spicy chicken hotpot, we recommend adding some of the fiery soup and eating it a la kung pao porridge.

Preparation is fuss-free. Just pour the contents into a bowl and pop it into the microwave for three minutes. Other congee options of premium pork ball, chicken & mushroom, and fresh clams, are priced at $8.80.

The bird’s nest dessert will only be available next week and we had a preview taste of it. It ain’t the premium stuff at this price, but what you get are generous strands of bird's nest. Instead of serving it hot as instructed on the packaging, we had it chilled and it’s quite refreshing and not too sweet. However, the ginseng taste might be a tad overpowering for some.

Order at https://mrlazybum.com.

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