Young Hawkers Bring Popular Green Curry Tornado Omelette Rice From Malaysia To S’pore Kopitiams

Hawkers formerly in corporate jobs

The trio, who opened Ryotai’s first SG outlet in October this year, are all first time hawkers. Keh Keng and Yi Wei used to work in IT while Ming Zhen was in telemarketing. They decided to quit their jobs early this year in search of a new career path. Keh Keng and Yi Wei graduated with a degree in Computer Science back in Malaysia, while Ming Zhen completed her Form 6 (pre-uni college) before going to work. The three friends are the sole owners in this business. 

“We all happened to plan to quit our jobs at the same time, so we came together and thought of starting a business. One of my partners who tried Ryotai felt the signature green curry rice is really nice and quite special, so he asked us if we wanted to bring it to Singapore,” Keh Keng says.

Paid “six-figure ringgit sum” for franchise rights

They then approached Ryotai’s owner, who sold the franchising rights to them for a “six-figure ringgit sum”. The thirty-something year-old chef-owner also taught the friends his special curry recipe over the course of two weeks. 

Though the young hawkers didn’t have prior culinary experience, they say the recipe was fairly easy to pick up. “The three of us cook ourselves at home. So we just used our basic skills, and the chef also has his SOP (standardised operating procedure), so we just followed it,” Keh Keng explains.

Opened three branches in two months

Over the last few months, the towkays have already opened three Ryotai outlets at kopitiams in Kelantan Lane, Paya Lebar, and Jurong. They also had a short-lived fourth outlet at Kaki Bukit, which they shut down due to poorer sales in the area.

Keh Keng says they invested roughly $10K of their own savings into opening each stall. Why expand so quickly? “We really have faith in this curry recipe. After opening our first and second stalls, a lot of customers gave us good comments, which gave us the confidence to open another stall,” they explain.

Thai-Japanese fusion green curry

Ryotai currently has four main dishes on their menu: Oyster Mushroom Egg Rice ($7.90), Chicken Karaage Egg Rice ($8.90), Tempura Egg Rice ($9.90), and Prawn Katsu Egg Rice ($13.90). 

Each dish comes with a ‘tornado omelette’ atop a bed of rice drenched in their signature green curry sauce that comes with chunks of potatoes and carrots.

According to the owners, the green curry here is a special recipe made by the original Japanese owner, who combined elements of Japanese curry and Thai green curry together. Keh Keng says: “Japanese curry is much sweeter, and Thai green curry is much spicier, so this is somewhere in between”. He adds that the chef also included a “special ingredient” (he declines to reveal it), plus fresh green chillies to keep the curry a pretty pastel shade of green. 

Compared to regular Thai green curry, Keh Keng says the curry here contains less coconut milk. Texture wise, its thickness is more similar to Japanese curry.

Currently, Kah Keng and his two pals have split the work among the three stalls, which they cook at daily. They work alongside two other staff members each. 

So far, the hawkers share that business has been good. “It’s surprising that so many customers like our curry a lot. Some regulars come back three to four days a week,” they share. 

Ryotai has three outlets including Guan Guan Kopitiam, Blk 1015 Geylang East Ave 3, S389730. Open daily 11am - 9.30pm. Tel: 9220 6166.  More info via Facebook and Instagram. 

Photos: Ryotai

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