Pan Lingling & Xiang Yun Are Now Selling Healthy & IG-Worthy Yusheng
If all goes well, they’ll sell healthier alternatives to other types of festive food too.
Cao Yong was part of Team Singapore at the 2015 World Championship Chef Competition in Shanghai, where they emerged champions. He previously worked at restaurants, but now he owns two zichar hawker stores in Jurong with his father.
The idea was to introduce a healthy alternative to yusheng for Chinese New Year as both Lingling and Xiang Yun believe that the ones on the market are “too sinful”.
“It all started when we were filming variety show Silver Carnival last October," says Lingling. "Chef Cao Yong created a fruit yusheng for the show and it was so good that we thought, 'Why don’t we sell something like this instead?' I wanted something that isn’t as jelak as the typical ones you buy outside. He said that the original idea wouldn’t work because fruits spoil too quickly, which is why we decided to go with vegetables instead.”
Lingling with chef Cao Yong and Xiang Yun
With less than four months to go before Chinese New Year, the team scrambled to perfect their yusheng and place orders for the wooden plates and cloth to wrap their product.
They finally decided on Japanese abalone, ice plants, purple cabbage, fried taro and a variety of other vegetables. Instead of the usual plum sauce, which Lingling says tastes “too artificial”, they have a “special sauce that’s light enough to keep you wanting more”.
Admits Lingling: “When we were placing orders, the factories told us that they had closed orders two months ago. After discussing it with them, they said they would be able to provide us with what we needed, but at a higher cost because it was a last-minute order. But we felt that it was necessary, so we’re earning a smaller profit margin. Typical yusheng come in plastic containers, but we wanted something that you can reuse. Both the cloth and the plate can be used for decoration, and we’ve also received feedback from our customers that the yusheng looks very good in photos because of how we’ve packaged it.”
When we ask the actress how much each of them invested in the business, she says: “We didn’t calculate how much exactly we spent lah, we just want to do a good job. And if we talk money, people will think we’re very rich."
Desmond Tan, Huang Biren & Chen Liping have given their stamps of approval
They only started receiving orders about a week ago, but business has been brisk and they’ve already gotten “200 to 300 orders”, which will be prepared by Cao Yong's team, despite them relying mostly on word-of-mouth.
“We’ve had some clients come to us saying that they can finally send yusheng to their business partners as a gift," laughs Lingling. "We also have a special service where you can request for either Xiang Yun or I to deliver the yusheng personally if you order at least 15 plates. We can’t promise that we’ll be able to do it, but we’re doing our best to fulfill all the requests.”
As for the other delivery orders, Lingling tells us that she counts herself extremely blessed that her younger brother has agreed to take on the task.
“He does food transport and he said to me, ‘Jie, do you know how expensive it is to engage deliverymen that will work through Chinese New Year?’ I asked him if he could help, and he agreed immediately," says Lingling. "He’s giving us a special rate as well, so I’m really grateful.”
They are also renting a warehouse space that belongs to another relative of Lingling’s to use as their central kitchen.
But with all three of business partners tied up with their respective commitments, Linging confesses that it was an uphill task for them to launch Ju Xing Ji before Chinese New Year.
If all goes well, they intend to launch seasonal items on the menu that will tie in with special occasions throughout the year. For example, they might come up with healthy mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival. She says: “We don’t know anything for sure yet since we’re still very busy with the yusheng. We really rushed things because we agree on the importance of staying healthy, which COVID-19 reminded us of.”
As to whether she’s worried that doing business with Xiang Yun would — touch wood — affect their friendship in the event something bad happens, Lingling says: “She’s has been looking out for me since I joined showbiz. We’re not the kind who talk to each other all the time, but we’re very close. We’re not calculative and we help each other out when we’re busy. We're also pretty chill people, so I’m confident everything will stay the same between us.”
Photos: Pan Lingling, Ju Xing Ji's Instagram
