Jelebu Dry Laksa’s Chef Renee Tang Joins Hip ‘S’pore Soul Food’ Eatery Opened By Saveur Founder Dylan Ong
The restaurant serves the chefs’ family heirloom recipes like Teochew-style braised dua cai (mustard greens) and rojak, as well as Renee’s famous dry laksa.
In February earlier this year, young chef Renee Tang, 29, made a surprise announcement. She was closing her well-received Jelebu Dry Laksa restaurant at VivoCity, just slightly over a year after opening.
The eatery was set up in partnership with hospitality group Tipsy Collective, which told 8days.sg that the closure was “part of their opening strategic evaluation” after the group’s co-founder Derek Ong, 35, passed away unexpectedly.
Renee told 8days.sg that she had no plans to open another Jelebu Dry Laksa restaurant, but would be working on a “new concept” independently from Tipsy Collective. Fast forward three months, and she has unveiled her latest project: Choon Hoy Parlor.
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Singapore soul food
Choon Hoy Parlor is opened and owned by chef Dylan Ong, 36, who founded popular affordable French restaurant Saveur and, later, Franco-Asian restaurant The Masses. For the menu and kitchen operations, he collaborates with two female chefs, Renee, and Benji Chew, 37, who was formerly cooking at The Masses.
The restaurant takes over The Masses’s former spot at 85 Beach Road (the latter has moved to Capitol Singapore). It is named after Dylan’s mother, Mdm Ong Choon Hoy, whom he credits for painstakingly taking care of their family by taking on three concurrent jobs as a hawker assistant and hawker centre cleaner.
To pay tribute to Mdm Ong’s home cooking, Choon Hoy Parlor serves “Singapore soul food” using heirloom recipes passed down by the three chefs’ families. Like Saveur and The Masses, prices are kept wallet-friendly here, similar to what you’d expect to pay at a kopitiam zi char stall (but you get a more hip, air-conditioned dining experience here).
The menu offerings are split into family heirloom dishes, heritage dishes and “recreated heritage recipes” reworked by the young chefs.
This includes a Teochew-style Pork Leg Trotter Jelly ($8.90), which was inspired by Dylan’s father, a kway chap hawker who used to save leftover meat from waste by turning them into pork trotter jelly. The humble but well-loved dish traditionally utilises oft-discarded pork parts like crunchy ear cartilage, skin and hind trotters.
He also introduces his mum’s ABC Soup ($8.90), which is usually homecooked with carrots, tomatoes and potatoes, but gets a slightly more premium twist here with additional pork ribs and onions.
Meanwhile, Renee contributes Braised Dua Cai ($16.90), cooked using a recipe inherited from her late Teochew grandmother, who used to make the decadent dish every Chinese New Year for 50 of her family members. The dua cai (also known as dua chua/ mustard greens) is charred and braised with hae bee, mushrooms, pork belly and sea cucumbers in a scallop stock.
She also offers her CHP x Jelebu Dry Laksa V2.0 ($18.90, good for three pax) here, which is described as “a dish that combines the essence of dry laksa with chao-tah beehoon”. The wok-fried dish is tossed with rempah, taugeh, fish cakes, tau pok and blanched blood cockles.
For a cold appetiser at Choon Hoy Parlor, you can order… rojak. Chef Benji Chew, whose parents used to run a zi char stall in Ipoh and later scaled down to a simpler operation selling rojak, reimagines her folks’ recipe by coming up with a rojak-flavoured ice cream called CHP Signature Our Rojak Our Own Way ($8.90).
Punchy har cheong (prawn paste)-infused rojak sauce is made into ice cream, served with requisite rojak fruits and veggies like jambu, star fruit and jicama. It is topped with century egg, you tiao and coarsely crushed peanuts.
Other local hawker and zi char-style favourites to expect include the CHP Signature Hainanese Kampong Chicken with Scallion and Ginger Sauce ($15.90 half / $28.90 whole), Teochew Steamed Fish (market price), Coin Prata with Masala Lamb ($13.90), Roasted Pork Belly ($18.90), Dry Bak Kut Teh in Claypot ($22.90) and 16-Hr Bone-In Coffee Angus Short Rib ($69 for 700g to 800g).
Value-for-money Set Lunches are also available, starting from $18.90 per pax for a five-course meal with a soup, hot/cold appetiser, a meat or seafood dish, a vegetable dish and a beverage.
Choon Hoy Parlor is at #01-02, 85 Beach Rd, S189694. Tel: 6266-0061. Open daily, Mon-Sat 12pm-3pm; 5.30pm-9.30pm, Sun 12pm-3pm; 5.30pm-9pm. www.choonhoyparlor.sg.
Photos: Choon Hoy Parlor
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