Couple Behind Popular Sourdough Home-Based Biz Now Prawn Mee Hawkers, Stall Opens Only 4 Hours Daily
When 8days.sg last spoke to Ethan Ng and Gina Tan in September 2021, the husband-and-wife team behind Baking with Gina, a popular home-based biz selling delicious naturally-coloured sourdough loaves and waffles, they shared that they plan to open a brick-and-mortar store when the time is right.
Fast forward one and a half years later, their dream has become a reality. But instead of their bakes, the couple is now peddling prawn mee at Amoy Street Food Centre. Their stall, punnily-named Ethan My Prawn Noodles, which sounds like “eaten my prawn noodles?”, opened on March 18. So, what happened?
“Way before we started our home bakery, we already knew we wanted to run a hawker stall. We were also looking for a space to run a bakery but we couldn’t find anything suitable within our budget. It’s very challenging to run a bakery in a hawker stall due to space constraints, so we decided to sell prawn noodles. It’s also to continue my grandparents’ legacy (more on that later)," Ethan, 36, tells 8days.sg.
Their stall, situated on the second floor beside coffee and toast shop, social enterprise Mad Roaster, cost around $45K to set up. While the switch from selling bakes to prawn mee may seem very sudden, the couple say interest for their hae mee has been “building up for a while”.
“Whenever we posted photos of our prawn noodles on social media, our followers would ask us when we were going to sell it,” shares Gina, 34.
Why pause their home-based baking biz?
However they are quick to add that this is not the end of Baking with Gina. The biz is on a break and they “will resume it one day”.
“Honestly, we are a little tired of baking. We don’t have proper rest time as we work till the wee hours making bread and this also disrupts our children’s bedtime. We wanted more normalised working hours so we can spend quality time with them,” says Ethan.
Like many home-based businesses, they also saw a 30 percent drop in business, which they reckon could be “due to the borders reopening”.
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Ethan’s grandparents used to run a prawn noodle biz
Prawn mee holds a special place in Ethan’s heart. His maternal grandparents used to hawk hae mee on a trishaw around Old Airport Road in the ’60s and ’70s, and after they retired, it was only cooked on special occasions like Chinese New Year. It was something Ethan always looked forward to, so in 2008, he learned the recipe from his grandparents. In fact, it was his prawn mee that won Gina’s heart.
“When I got to know Gina, I brought her to my aunt’s place for prawn noodles. She said it was very nice, so I learned how to cook it and I made it for her during Chinese New Year,” he laughs.
Gina chimes in: “I can tell you honestly that I don’t usually eat prawns, but this is different. The taste of the prawn noodles is very special, and the prawns are very sweet.”
Ethan has since tweaked the recipe such that the soup is more robust and is very pleased when his relatives tell him that it tastes better than his aunt’s.
Still adjusting to hawker life
Ethan does the cooking at the stall while Gina takes care of prep work. They are still getting used to life as hawkers. Though their stall is only open for four hours daily, from 10.30am to 2.30pm, they have to work long hours.
“So exhausting,” laments Ethan, shaking his head. “We come in at 5am to prepare the food and after we close at 2.30pm, we have to wash up. Dealing with prawns is also very messy and dirty.”
“While the hours are equally long for this and our home based biz, at least we have more work-life balance now. When we go home, we spend time with our children unlike previously [where work and personal time blended together]. This is also why we chose to open shop at Amoy Street Food Centre. Weekends here are quiet so we chiong on weekdays and rest on Sunday.”
Their sons enjoy helping out at the stall
It helps that their three sons Eden, 15, Elnathan, 12, and Ethnan, 8, who were rather involved in their home biz, are enthusiastic about helping out at the stall.
“Elnathan loves to tag along ’cos he wants to give us support. But we don’t let the kids into the stall ’cos it’s too dangerous. They just help with simple chores like wiping the trays or tidying up,” shares Gina.
Adds Ethan: “He even promotes our prawn noodles in school. The teachers brought their families to come and support our prawn noodle stall.”
Business has been brisk
Despite just opening two weeks ago, business has been healthy. They get mostly the nearby office crowd and friends, and are usually sold out around 2pm. They currently sell around 160 bowls of noodles a day, pretty good considering they are open for just four hours daily, says Ethan. When 8days.sg visited the stall on a Friday morning, they had to constantly turn customers away during our photo shoot.
“As soon as we open, there will be a queue and we’d work non-stop till around 2pm. We were so busy and overwhelmed on the first couple of days that we forgot to have our meals,” says Ethan, adding that the wait could be around 30 minutes during the lunchtime rush.
The menu
The stall offers basic prawn noodles and their signature prawn noodles, in soup and dry options, served in delightfully retro ceramic rooster bowls for a nostalgic feel. The only difference between the regular and signature bowls is the addition of pork ribs. Customers can choose from three types of noodles: yellow noodles, kway teow and thick bee hoon, as these were what Ethan’s grandparents offered back in the day.
Prices start from $6 for the prawn mee soup, to $9.50 for the dry signature noodles. Add-ons like chilli and pork ribs are also on offer from 50 cents.
Signature Prawn Noodles (Soup), $9
We decided to head straight for the signature prawn noodles, which comes with five pieces of pork ribs, sliced pork, kang kong, beansprouts, and five slices of halved medium-sized prawns. Ethan uses medium-sized wild-caught ang kar (red leg) prawns which are known for their sweet flavour. The meaty pork ribs, cooked “bak kut teh-style” in garlic, white pepper and other seasoning, are pretty tender, though we would’ve preferred fattier cuts. They could also do with a little more simmering as it’s not as flavourful as we’d like.
True to Ethan’s word, the light orange-tinged broth is very robust, brimming with the briny sweetness of the prawns. There is also an umami depth. When we ask if customers can request for free refills, he says this is not encouraged as the quantity is prepared according to their sales forecast for the day.
Well, it is painstaking to make. Unlike most prawn mee soups which are made with pork bones, Ethan uses a “base stock” made by simmering chicken bones with ikan bilis for six hours. This, he says, gives the soup a subtle sweetness that “doesn’t taste artificial”. The base stock is then simmered with fried prawn heads and shells for another two hours.
Signature Prawn Noodles (Dry), $9.50 (8 DAYS Pick!)
Though we can’t get enough of the soup, we love the dry-tossed noodles even more. Tossed with their house-made sambal, prawn broth, aromatic shallot oil and lard crackling, it’s super shiok, if a tad salty. We like the heady sambal for its bold umami notes and slight smokiness. But those who can’t handle heat might want to opt for the soup version ’cos this is one fiery sambal. “We find the chilli offered at other prawn mee stalls not spicy enough so in addition to fresh and dried chilli, we added chilli padi in our sambal to crank up the heat,” shares Ethan.
Bottom line
While the prices for these bowls are slightly steep for a hawker centre setting, the quality of the prawns and flavourful soup are good enough to justify its cost. As much as we love the soup, we enjoy the dry hae mee at Ethan’s more — there’s something addictive about the combination of the chilli-tossed noodles with aromatic lard and shallots. We just wish they offered a bigger bowl of soup on the side.
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