24-Year-Old Ditches Computer Engineering To Sell Halal Lor Mee, Stall Draws Long Queues
Computer engineering diploma holder Ethan Tan claims to be the only one in Singapore selling halal lor mee (there were other halal lor mee stalls before, but they’ve mostly shut down, he says). In place of pork belly, the 24-year-old hawker whips up the classic Hokkien dish with loads of dory fish instead, using a recipe from his Hokkien grandmother.
While his new stall Udang Udang is branded as a Penang-style prawn mee shop, Ethan says lor mee is currently his most popular offering. The dish went viral after halal food influencers posted it on social media. He set up shop earlier this August, beside his dad’s popular halal zi char joint Mari Mari Seafood at Woodlands Koufu.
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From computer engineering to hawker
Ethan graduated from Singapore Polytechnic with a diploma in Computer Engineering in 2020. Realising that coding was not his forte – “going through poly was a nightmare!” – he decided to help out at his parents’ stall after completing national service in 2022.
“I was trying to find my passion. If I don’t have the passion for something, I can’t do it at all. I thought computer engineering would be fun like playing games, but there’s a lot of coding. Wah! I didn’t understand how to code at all. Then I realised: I love to cook for my family at home and discover new recipes. Since my father had a zi char stall, I thought, why not join their business?,” he explains.
Ethan tells us his dad used to be against him pursuing F&B, but came around after seeing Mari Mari’s success. “There’s a stereotype that those in F&B don’t know how to study or don’t know how to make money, so it was quite ‘hated on’ back then. Since I had decent grades, my parents asked me to do something else like computer engineering. But when my dad became more successful in the F&B industry, he was like, actually can do leh, come join me son!”, he laughs.
He sells Penang-style prawn mee too, from $4.80
After working at Mari Mari for some time, Ethan and his family happened to be on holiday in Penang when they stumbled upon a street stall near their hotel selling prawn noodles.
“We went to Penang for holiday, and had Penang prawn noodles by the roadside. Wah, sibei ho jiak (very yummy) leh! Our plan has always been to make halal Chinese food for Muslims to try, so we thought, why not bring it to Singapore?”, Ethan says. While there are other halal prawn mee stalls like Deanna’s Kitchen at Kembangan, they mostly sell Singapore-style prawn noodles.
The Gen Z hawker invested $50K of his savings (with some help from dad, he says), to set up his noodle shop. These days, he works alongside three cooks at Udang Udang, occasionally helping out at Mari Mari next door.
Learned how to cook prawn mee from a ‘master’ in Penang
While both local and Penang prawn mee are cooked with similar base ingredients (like prawn head and pork bone), there are some differences. Singapore prawn noodles are typically served with cut chillies on the side, while the Penang version has a dollop of sambal, plus strained blended prawn heads and shelled in its broth for a richer, spicier hit.
To learn how to make authentic Penang prawn mee, Ethan returned to the same roadside stall and managed to get its owner to teach him his recipe. “He’s a really nice guy in his 50s who was willing to teach me for free. We even brought him to Singapore because the prawn suppliers in both countries are different, and we had to tweak the recipe. He also learned how to make our version of dry prawn noodles in Singapore, so we exchanged tips,” Ethan shares.
At Udang Udang, the prawn mee broth is made mostly with prawns, plus other ingredients like chicken stock in place of pork bones. Ethan boils his broth for six hours daily, with roughly 40kg of tiger prawns.
Halal lor mee, $5.50
But his lor mee rules at the stall. Aside from gaining traction from influencers’ posts, he adds that the dish has a novelty factor for many in the Muslim community. “I think many Muslims haven’t tried lor mee before. There are other halal prawn mee stalls so they’ve probably had a taste of prawn noodles, though mine is different as it’s Penang-style. However, lor mee is something new to them,” Ethan explains.
Here, he substitutes pork belly with generous portions of fried dory. He elaborates: “Regular lor mee recipes usually use braised pork, but we replaced the pork with a huge amount of dory. It doesn’t matter if I have less profits, if my food is good, customers will come back”.
He adds that his grandma’s recipe also includes a special ingredient. “The standard recipe involves ingredients like dried chillies, cloves, cinnamon sticks and oyster sauce, but my grandma puts in an additional spice that I can’t reveal. Some customers say there’s an old-school taste because of this particular spice,” Ethan says.
Queue of up to 45 minutes
If you’re planning to head down to Udang Udang, Ethan suggests visiting on weekdays to avoid long queues.
Since getting his halal cert last month, the young towkay says his business has been booming. “Business is really good. If you want to try my food, come down on weekdays. Because from Fridays to Sundays, the queue is non-stop. The longest wait was 45 minutes, I felt so sorry for my customers!”, he laughs.
Udang Udang is at 1 Woodlands Height, Koufu HQ, S737859. Open daily 9am to 7pm. Tel: 9168 9601.
Photos: Udang Udang, Google/Heidi HL Tan, Google/Peter Rock Steady
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