New Nasi Lemak Hawker Has Quintessentially S’porean Bromance With Tay Ping Hui & Ix Shen
The trio’s wholesome friendship goes back over 30 years, when they met as models on the job. 8days.sg walks down memory lane with them — and eats a plate of super sedap local boy-cooked nasi lemak at hawker James Ong’s new stall, Straits Club.
Oh, and meet a bunch of buddies along the way who would become your ride or die.
Sometimes the ‘ride’ is literal, when it comes to the story of how actors Tay Ping Hui, 53, and Ix Shen, 52, became lifelong friends. Back in 1991, the celeb pals were professional models attending a casting call. “We were the only two there carrying motorcycle helmets,” Ix recounts to 8days.sg.
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A very ’90s friendship
They bonded over their common interests like biking. Two years later, a third pal would join their group. James Ong, now 48, was also a model working the same runway shows as Ping Hui and Ix. Ping Hui recalls: “We all had an interest in Chinese tea — yes, Chinese tea — and we liked going to prata shops to look for the perfect plaster prata with the round yolk. We have the same frequency; we like similar things.”
Another favourite activity was playing LAN games together. “We played games like Red Alert and Doom. When we first started hanging out, there were only pagers and coin phones. Then we were forced to update to e-mail, then cellular phones. And now WhatsApp,” says Ix.
Conversations among the three guys, we observe, usually descend into chaotic bro-bickering, guy jokes and the obligatory roasting. “It’s like we are living in different universes and we come together. It’s a multiverse problem,” Ix notes.
They also gathered at James’ parents’ three-room HDB flat in Henderson for meals. James shares: “My mum is British, but she’s practically Singaporean. My father is Singaporean-Chinese. They met while he was studying in the UK.”
In one of life’s interesting twists, he is now a nasi lemak hawker running his own stall called Straits Club, which opened just over a week ago at one-north hawker centre Timbre+.
Before becoming a hawker recently, James’ last job was head of transformation for a global bank. He explains: “I was looking after technological integrations. When [the bank] acquires entities, we need to merge the [IT] systems.”
What motivated the self-taught cook to pursue his daydream was the fact that his kids are now grown up. “My oldest daughter is 22, middle son is 20, and the youngest is 18. My oldest is part-timing here. That’s why I can do this,” he shares.
As research, James and his wife Veronica travelled around Asia trying many plates of nasi lemak. “I was blown away by Village Park Restaurant’s nasi lemak [in Kuala Lumpur],” he says.
James’ endgame, he says, is to build his “best version of nasi lemak” and expand Straits Club into a chain. “But I need to get my first stall right. I take a user experience approach to this. All the things I have done in my past job have helped me in this new space. Thinking about how it feels for someone, the taste and texture,” he shares.
James also offers a $2.50 top-up for a chicken nasi lemak set meal, which comes with a bergedil plus lime juice or lemongrass beverage of your choice (a la carte drinks are priced at $2.50 a cup).
Chicken Nasi Lemak, $8.90 (8 Days Pick!)
This is one seriously shiok, elegant plate of nasi lemak, though instead of a whole chicken leg to gnaw on, the ayam goreng berempah is served as petite boneless chunks.
As it turns out, James has designed his nasi lemak UX to cater for his main office crowd customers. He explains: “It’s more impressive and cheaper if I serve a whole leg with bone. But I looked for a supplier who could give me a custom boneless cut so people don’t have to fiddle with the bone. I think about how to make things easier and quicker for the office workers queueing here at lunchtime.”
The al-dente rice is cooked with just enough coconut milk for subtle lemak flavour. We found its texture a bit too hard and the coconut fragrance too muted on its own, but it all comes together very nicely when we spike it with sweet caramelised onion sambal (you can ‘supercharge’ your sambal by asking James for his very spicy chilli padi), salted fried peanuts and ikan bilis, plus an add-on jammy-yolked fried egg.
It's worth topping up for the piquant achar and a savoury fried bergedil, and wash the nasi lemak down with iced lemongrass or lime juice. Despite the hawker setting, you get ‘fancier’ ambience at night with a daily live band playing (Straits Club is open till 7pm/8.30pm).
5 Piece Chicken Platter, $7 (8 Days Pick!)
The same shiok ayam goreng berempah is available as a five-piece side dish, so you can load up on it to your heart’s content.
James reckons that Ix and Ping Hui are “some of my harshest critics”. He adds: “Ix will bring in geography — he’d talk about the different flavour profiles for nasi lemak from the region and Ping breaks down the flavours.”
Ix pipes up: “We understand that his job in finance was very stressful. It was not the toughness [of being a hawker] that we were worried about. We know James can take tough.”
But he couldn’t resist joking: “For us, it was a more selfish reason. James would always cook feasts for us when we gathered at his house. If he’s too tired from work, he might lose his touch!"
Meanwhile, a pre-showbiz stardom 25-year-old Ping Hui worked as a general manager for Subway. On hand to help (and to troll) was his buddy James, who cheekily recalls: “I helped him distribute flyers. At Orchard Towers! I advertised the length of the sandwiches to people. Hahaha. How many inches you want? Go tell my friend Ping!”
How to keep a bromance alive
It’s not every day that a hawker has two household names showing up to lend their support for his new business. “We’re not here to steal the limelight,” Ix jokes.
According to Ping Hui, doing this 8days.sg shoot together with his two longtime bros is the highest point of their friendship. “It’s an accumulation of all the years of us being friends. No matter what we do, we are here to support one another,” he says.
And the lowest point of their bromance? “It was around 10, 15 years ago when we all had our own things to deal with and we weren’t in contact as much. But when we came together, we took off again,” he reveals.
Ping Hui agrees: “I think all friendships should be like that. We don’t need to know all the details of each other’s lives, and we don’t get upset if James doesn’t do what we want him to do. ’Cos we respect his decisions. I know James. He’s the kind of guy who would take a knife for me.”
Their bromance runs so deep, the trio even envision one another in their retirement plans. “We are looking for that mythical village where we can all retire together,” quips Ix. “We have spoken about it,” says Ping Hui, adding: “I have a feeling that in our later years we will go back to being three guys having a cup of teh tarik. It doesn’t have to be complicated.”
Straits Club is at #01-01 Timbre+, 73A Ayer Rajah Crescent, S139957. Open weekdays, Mon-Wed 11am-7.30pm, Thu & Fri 11am-8.30pm. GrabFood delivery available. www.instagram.com/straitsclub
Photos: Dillon Tan
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