Popular Hokkien Mee & Kaya Toast Specialist Bao Er Cafe Has New Sister Outlet
The queues speak for themselves: Hokkien mee and kaya toast specialist Bao Er Cafe is so popular, the eatery is often teeming with customers. This is despite its ultra ulu location, on the second floor of the quiet, rather rundown Balestier Plaza. Nonetheless, it serves some of the best kaya toast we’ve had in town.
Now, we have had quite a few stressful meals at this chaotic cafe, where the wait for Hokkien mee and toast can go up to an hour during peak mealtimes. But good news, Bao Er’s owner, Jeremy Tan, 39, has opened another fancier, air-conditioned 72-seat outlet called Treasure Toast at Purvis Street.
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Treasure Toast
Like its name implies, Treasure Toast is a more kaya toast-centric outlet, as Jeremy got the idea of expanding after seeing the success of Bao Er’s luscious kaya toast.
Bao Er Cafe at Balestier Plaza
But before Bao Er Cafe and Treasure Toast, Jeremy had already set up popular Hokkien mee eatery Prawnography. For Treasure Toast, he partners his childhood friend and owner of optical chain W Optics, the same-named Jeremy Wong, 39, to set up shop.
“I started this new concept with my childhood friend because of the success of Bao Er Cafe, which is known mainly for its kaya toast and Hokkien mee. We were thinking of scaling the business and concentrating on kaya toast for this concept. I have experience in F&B, while he has the expertise in marketing to scale the business to the next level, ” Jeremy Tan explains. In total, the duo invested $150,000 for their joint eatery.
Why not set up a chain of Bao Er Cafes, since it's already a popular brand name? Jeremy explains: “We decided to use Treasure Toast because it's a new project with different shareholders and we have plans to expand the business into shopping malls eventually. We did a display poster of all the media write-ups about us, and we did mention that I, the founder of Bao Er and Prawnography, has opened Treasure Toast.”
Same kaya toast recipe
Jeremy tells us that he makes the kaya jam at Treasure Toast daily, with the same recipe he uses at Bao Er. The oozy, silky jam here is made with fresh coconut milk, eggs and pandan leaves, then cooked in a pressure cooker for five hours to get its smooth, even texture.
Meanwhile, the crisp, thin bread is grilled to a golden-brown hue, and topped with a generous slab of cold salted butter.
Famous ‘wok hei’ Hokkien mee available here too
Jeremy’s famous wok hei-laden Hokkien mee, a specialty at his standalone eateries Prawnography and Bao Er, is also available at Treasure Toast.
What makes the Hokkien mee here so robust? Jeremy explains: “Technique-wise, we fry the noodles lightly first with garlic and eggs in big batches. After that, we use the pre-fried noodles and fry it with a Cantonese-style wok technique, with more eggs and garlic to get the desired wok hei flavour.” The last time we tried Jeremy’s Hokkien mee at Bao Er, we enjoyed the smokiness of the noodles, but found it a tad too wet for our liking.
Interestingly, the towkay tells us it wasn’t his initial plan to sell Hokkien mee at Treasure Toast. When the cafe first opened in mid-July this year, the two Jeremys decided on curry chicken, fish soup and fried rice for the savoury menu, as it was a hassle to hire a chef who could keep up with Bao Er’s Hokkien mee par excellence. “Hokkien mee is not as scalable, ’cos the ingredients can be the same, but the standard depends on the cook,” he points out.
But sales for non-Hokkien mee mains were lacklustre, which meant it was time to introduce the ever-popular fried noodles to save the day. Slow-moving items like curry chicken and fish soup were taken off the menu, though Jeremy says customers who tried them gave good reviews.
“It is possibly too early to remove the curry chicken from our menu, but our kitchen isn't big enough for us to offer so many dishes. So we have to streamline our menu to be efficient. But we might introduce these dishes again next time as a weekly special,” he says.According to Jeremy, his kaya toast is still a hit at Treasure Toast, but without popular savoury main dishes, he was losing out on customers from the lunch rush who wanted heartier, more filling food. “Which was why we ended up introducing Hokkien mee here too. We have already hired a worker who can cook at the same standard,” he says. Though he initially thought it to be more troublesome to hire a good cook, Jeremy says he ”managed to find a chef who picked up the Hokkien mee recipe fast”. A fortuitous win for him, we say, since Bao Er’s HKM is clearly the superstar. Other than mee, Treasure Toast now serves economic bee hoon and fried rice.
Higher prices at Treasure Toast
Prices at Treasure Toast are slightly higher than at Bao Er Cafe, which Jeremy attributes to the higher rental and operational costs at the new location. For instance, a Kaya Butter Toast Set costs $6 instead of $5, and a plate of Hokkien Mee is priced at $8.80 instead of $7.
On the bright side, at least you get to skip the long queue at Bao Er Cafe. While Jeremy doesn’t have an exact gauge of the current waiting time at Treasure Toast, he says the eatery is still “quite crowded”, albeit with better crowd control now. “It’s still very crowded now, especially on weekends and public holidays. The queues are not as long on weekdays compared to weekends,” he says.
At Treasure Toast, Jeremy has also introduced over 15 toppings to go with his Fried Bee Hoon ($2.90), including new wu xiang-style sides like Ngoh Hiang Rolls ($2.60), Crispy Prawn Crackers ($2.30), Handmade Fish Cake ($1.80) and Prawn Rolls ($2.50). Prior to this, he only offered luncheon meat and chicken cutlet for sides. “I realised that customers love our bee hoon, but the variety of toppings were too little,” he says.
Plans to make Treasure Toast a “well-known local brand”
In the long run, Jeremy says his goal is to make Treasure Toast a household name. “We want to make it a well-known Singaporean brand with many outlets,” he shares.
Does this mean that kaya toast chains now have a new competitor? The towkay says no. “I’m not rivalling them lah. Only the kaya toast is similar, but the other things we sell are different from [the chains’] menu. We plan to have our own identity — the toast is for breakfast and teatime, and we still serve main dishes for lunch and dinner.”
Treasure Toast is at #01-01 23 Purvis St, S188600. Open daily 7am - 7pm. Tel: 8398 9898.
Photos: Treasure Toast, Florence Fong, Google/Douglas MacLean
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