Twins Forced To Close Café After Drug Conviction, Now Back With Duck Burger Hawker Stall

After his release, he found a job at The Prive Group as sous chef for just over two months before his long-time friend Noorman talked him into starting a business together. The latter owns a wedding business and a now-defunct cafe.

They decided to reopen The Ugly Duckling as a hawker stall at the Makan Empire coffee shop in Kaki Bukit together. But before that, Girda visited his brother who is still in prison. “When we were in prison, we already talked about reopening The Ugly Duckling a lot,” he says. “So before I opened the stall, I visited to tell him about my plans.”

“He told me, ‘Just go ahead.’ And once I got his blessing, I knew that I was good to go.” Girda tells us. “This will be waiting for him when he gets out next year (assuming he is granted a remission as well).”

As part of Girda’s conditional remission, he has to adhere to certain conditions, which includes complying with curfew hours while staying at a halfway house for the first six months out of prison.

“This is a second chance for me, and I want to do better,” he tells us. “I’m very grateful for my ex-wife. We’re good friends now, and she’s always willing when it comes to visiting my kids. They are my everything.”

The hawker now sees his 10-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter weekly, though he says that he’s waiting for the school holidays and operations at The Ugly Duckling to stabilise so he can spend more quality time with them.

Girda started cooking at his auntie's nasi padang stall right after dropping out in his third year of secondary school (“too playful”, he explains), though his professional culinary career began in 2003 when he joined Novotel Apollo Hotel (now Furama RiverFront) and later restaurants like Garibaldi. His longest stint was eight years at Timbre Group as group executive chef.

His twin brother (right), who also worked at Timbre Group as group operations manager for nine years, decided to leave his job together with Girda (left) in 2014 to open their cafe. “We didn’t want to work for others anymore. We wanted to do our own thing together, so we quit and opened Sunday Market,” Girda says. Duck was one of the proteins that featured on Sunday Market’s fusion menu as he’d gotten comfortable cooking it in his years at Timbre, he adds.

That’s also why they decided to feature a duck-focused menu during The Ugly Duckling’s pasar malam days. “What made us really known to the Malay community was when we opened a stall during the Eunos Ramadan Bazaar,” he says. “We sold up to 400 burgers on weekends and around a hundred on weekdays.”

Despite the brand’s four-year hiatus and “a bit ulu” hawker stall location now, Girda shares: “Since we started posting on our Instagram page [again], our followers have jumped and we’ve gotten a lot of inquiries. But maybe they’re too busy to come down (laughs). The crowd is still a bit quiet on weekdays, but we sell about fifty to sixty burgers on the weekend.”

His business partner Noorman sees potential in the airy kopitiam as a late-night supper spot, with its hipster fixings like artsy murals and fairy lights strewn across the ceiling. “Now it’s still work-from-home [as a default], so the lunch crowd isn’t so good yet,” Noorman says. “But at night, the ambience here is very good. If you serve good food, at an affordable price, people will come. People are very willing to travel to eat nowadays.”

Still, Girda sees the current space as a place to build up The Ugly Duckling’s customer base while waiting for pasar malams to return post-pandemic. “A duck is always waddling around,” he says cheerily. “I’m thinking of doing a food truck project, hopefully in the near future.”

The partners man the kitchen with help from staff – expect familiar fixings from their street food days like their signature duck confit burger, duck fat fries (there are a total of seven duck items) and beef rendang lasagna alongside an expanded menu of Western dishes like pastas, pizzas and ice cream waffles. Note that while The Ugly Duckling isn’t Halal-certified, it’s a wholly Muslim-owned joint. Prices range from $6 to $12.50 per dish.

Girda slow-cooks whole ducks in a mix of duck fat and vegetable oil for around seven hours before shredding the meat, forming it into a loose patty and searing it on the griddle. He douses the patty with a housemade sauce of lemon, garlic, soya sauce and kecap manis, before packing it with a slice of mild cheddar cheese, lettuce and caramelised pineapple between buttered brioche buns.

The duck patty – which could be a tad saltier – boasts an assertive sear that we enjoy, contrasted against the sweetness and smokiness of the pineapple and sauce. The toasted buns are fluffy and a little crispy at the bottom – great for sopping up the duck juices. Only the mild cheddar cheese fails to make much of an impact. Comes with unmemorable duck fat fries.

Beef brisket, stewed for eight hours with garlic, galangal, palm sugar and granulated coconut, takes centre stage. The brisket is shredded, pan-seared and served with lettuce and cheddar on toasted brioche buns. This burger comes with lashings of rich, spicy rendang gravy and a heap of spiced coconut floss (serunding) for texture and lemak oomph. We dig it – but it gets a bit rich after a while, so share this with someone else.

Girda sandwiches pulled beef brisket rendang and bechamel (white sauce) between layers of pasta sheets, and tops it off with mozzarella and powdered parmesan cheese and pops it in the oven. The rendang’s aroma disappears into the bechamel, leaving only a middling spiciness. Meanwhile, the heavy dose of mozzarella on top produces a pretty cheese pull, but together with the powdered parmesan, lacks any noticeable savoury or tangy notes – the result is a lasagna that comes off as a little one-note.

Another signature item from their pasar malam days. A generous mound of shredded duck, crisp duck skin, house-made tomato salsa, scallions, mayonnaise and melted nacho cheese party on a bed of shoestring fries. While they used to sell hand-cut fries back in 2016, they’ve opted for the aforementioned generic store-bought shoestring fries cooked in a mix of duck fat and veggie oil for now. Nonetheless, the toppings are pretty shiok and liven up the spuds tremendously.

We can see why The Ugly Duckling was a hit during its heyday – it serves up competently done, satisfyingly sinful fusion grub at an affordable price point. If you’re prepared to make the trek to Kaki Bukit, make sure to grab their signature duck confit burger and loaded duck fries. The rendang beef brisket burger is worth the calories too, but share it with a friend.

The Ugly Duckling is at #01-06, Bartley Biz Centre, Kaki Bukit Rd 4, S417806. Tel: 8587-9650. Open Tues – Fri, 10am – 9pm; Sat – Sun, 10am – 10pm. More info at Instagram. Delivery via Grabfood and Foodpanda.

Photos: Kelvin Chia

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