Hong Kong-Born Siblings Open Cha Chaan Teng With Customisable Bolo Buns & Noodle Sets
In late 2017, Hong Kong-born Vocan Law made the decision to shift her family to Singapore. Then working as an accountant, the mother-of-three, 35, wanted her young kids to study and grow up in an English-speaking environment.
She also left her accountancy job, which she had been in for over 10 years. “I wanted to have some changes — I was working on debit and credit day in and day out. I wanted to do something challenging,” she shares.
When the owner of Thai restaurant Thailily at Goldhill Shopping Centre was closing shop in 2020, Vocan had the opportunity to take over the restaurant.
As she had always wanted to go into F&B, she decided to start with running an existing restaurant to gain experience. “It was easier, because Thailily was already set up. I took over the space during the Covid-19 pandemic,” she says.
For the next two years, Vocan familiarised herself with local culture and the Novena neighbourhood’s tastes. She says: “It’s much more work than accountancy and I work seven days a week, but I have never looked back. I like to mingle with people and I can do that running a restaurant.”
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Teamed up with chef brother to open cha chaan teng
Vocan’s brother Kennith, 30, moved to Singapore in 2021 to study at culinary academy At-Sunrice. A hotel management graduate who worked in events catering at hotels in Hong Kong and Switzerland, he later joined French restaurant Gunther’s here as a chef. “My mum cooks very well. I was her ‘assistant’, which sparked my interest in cooking,” says Kennith.
The siblings, who are very close, have always wanted to run a business together since they were young. After Vocan gained experience running her own restaurant, she and Kennith began planning to open their own cha chaan teng.
They revamped the space for Vocan’s Thai restaurant Thailily, and named the new 60-seat HK cafe Hong Kong Day, riffing after the Cantonese term for familiar stomping ground. It opens for business tomorrow (Feb 5).
The charming cha chaan teng sports the requisite old-school jade green storefront, pastry display case and booth seats, as well as a tiled floor painstakingly laid by hand.
“We miss the food in Hong Kong, and our decision was prompted by the people around me. They said why not open something close to my heart?” Vocan reasons. She also observed that there were a lot of fellow Hong Kongers living in Novena. “I heard there’s a private school here which most of their children attend, so a lot of them stay around here,” she says.
Attended cha chaan teng school
To prepare themselves for running a cha chaan teng, the siblings attended “cha chaan teng school’ in Hong Kong, where they went for a series of courses that ranged from learning how to make nai cha (HK-style milk tea) to baking bolo buns and egg tarts.
“But the shifus will only tell you the basics. You have to do your homework. We made and drank a lot of milk tea just to finalise a recipe using our own blend of tea leaves,” says Vocan. In Hong Kong, cha chaan teng owners are famously protective of their proprietary milk tea recipes, which are made with tea leaf blends that are unique to each shop.
She also imports the Black & White brand of evaporated milk used in every HK cha chaan teng to stay faithful to the traditional milk tea formula.
The menu
At Hong Kong Day, Vocan and Kennith offer classic cha chaan teng like Western-inspired baked rice, spaghetti and toast sandwiches (8days.sg had a sneak peek before the cafe’s opening, when the siblings were still working on getting their complete menu nice and ready for opening day).
There is a customisable, reasonably-priced HK Noodle Set ($8.80) too, where you can choose your preferred carb base like HK favourite Nissin noodles, macaroni, or even Japanese udon, plus two toppings from a selection including satay beef, house-made roasted char siew, luncheon meat, fried egg and chicken chop. Each set is served with scrambled eggs and buttered toast.
Claypot dishes
The cafe also serves a more unusual repertoire of Cantonese claypot dishes for sharing, like Braised Prawns with Glass Noodles ($18.80) and Stewed Chicken with Sand Ginger ($13.80).
“Claypot dishes are very popular in Hong Kong for dinner. When you open the claypot, you can smell the fragrance of the food and it’s very appetite-whetting,” says Kennith. Once their operations stabilise, the siblings plan to extend their operating hours and offer “dim sum for supper” (they plan to open till 9pm, for now).
Sizzling hot plates
Hong Kong’s early-day cha chaan tengs were heavily influenced by British colonial rule, which would explain the Western-inspired dishes on their menus. Hong Kong Day has sizzling hot plate picks such as Garlic Onion Sauce Pork Chop ($18.80) and Black Pepper Sauce Chicken Chop ($18.80), all served with a side of French fries and creamy tomato soup.
Stuffed bolo buns
Another interesting menu item is the bolo bun, which you can order for takeaway from a display counter at the front of the cafe. Other than a plain Bolo Bun ($2), there are also loaded options like Luncheon Meat & Scrambled Egg ($5.80) and Pork Chop (pictured, $6.80).
You can tapow an Egg Tart ($1.80) too, all baked by Vocan in-house. For a quick snack, there is Thick Toast ($2.50 to $2.80) with your choice of peanut butter, condensed milk, butter, jam or Singaporean-style kaya. Beverages to go with your food include Authentic Milk Tea ($3.50 for hot/ $4 for cold), Lemon Tea ($3 for hot/ $4 for cold), Lemon Ribena ($4.50) and Red Bean with Crushed Ice ($5).
Hong Kong Day opens tomorrow (Feb 5) at Goldhill Shopping Centre, 165 Thomson Rd, S307618. Tel: 9016-8866. Open daily except Mon, 11am-9pm (last order at 8.30pm).
Photos: Lionel Lai
No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg.
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