Peranakan people like me have mixed Chinese and Malay ancestry, so our food is a fusion of Malay, Chinese, and Indian flavors. It’s very strong in flavor and very fragrant.<\/p>\n
Last year, I started my own Peranakan food business, battling high rents, difficulty getting customers, and getting used to sweating in a kitchen for hours. I never looked back.<\/p>\n
I never saw myself in an office job<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ernest Ang works 12-hour-long days at his eatery.<\/p>\n
Aditi Bharade<\/p>\n
I did an electronics engineering diploma, but realized I hated the idea of being an engineer. I didn’t know what job to pursue, but I knew what I didn’t want to do \u2014 engineering.<\/p>\n
I tried looking for work in human resources and administrative roles, but I knew that wasn’t what I was cut out for.<\/p>\n
My friends recommended I try something different because my grandma is a good cook, and I love to cook.<\/p>\n
I decided to take a stab at it.<\/p>\n
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Pestering grandma to divulge secret recipes<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A childhood picture of Ernest Ang with his grandparents. His 74-year-old grandmother, Tan Ah Muay, taught him how to cook Peranakan food.<\/p>\n
Ernest Ang<\/p>\n
My grandma is very secretive about her recipes. To her, they’re like an asset.<\/p>\n
When I told her that I wanted to start my own restaurant, she thought I wasn’t committed to it and that I would give up after a month or two.<\/p>\n
For months, I went to her house with ingredients, trying to watch how she cooked and take notes. This was a challenging process because she measured ingredients based on gut feeling.<\/p>\n
I finally managed to figure out her recipes and develop a process for cooking for a restaurant.<\/p>\n
Launching Kokoyo Nyonya Delights<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ang launched Kokoyo Nyonya Delights in August 2024.<\/p>\n
Aditi Bharade<\/p>\n
I launched Kokoyo Nyonya Delights in August, after months of practising recipes and an SG$80,000, or about $62,000, investment. I rented a small open-air eatery in Singapore’s northwestern Serangoon neighborhood for SG$13,500 a month.<\/p>\n
Three of my friends helped me out with cooking and operations.<\/p>\n
My grandmother contributed some of her savings. I couldn’t have done it without her investment.<\/p>\n
I started with 12 items on the menu, which included soups, vegetable dishes, and some meat dishes.<\/p>\n
My grandmother told me to focus on the most popular Peranakan dishes, like inchi kabin, a fried chicken dish, and beef rendang, which is beef stewed in coconut milk and spices. Babi pongteh, which is braised pork in soybean sauce, is also one of our favorites.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kokoyo Nyonya’s ichi kabin meal includes rice, fried chicken, cucumbers, an egg, and anchovies.<\/p>\n
Aditi Bharade<\/p>\n
Everything served at Kokoyo Nyonya has to be vetted by my grandmother. I’m not a certified chef. I don’t have a culinary background \u2014 I only have my grandma.<\/p>\n
Cooking Peranakan food is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. I get in at around 9 a.m. every day to make everything from scratch, because grandma doesn’t like me selling leftovers. I leave after 9 p.m. after feeding the dinner crowd.<\/p>\n
There’s a lot of prep involved. Based on my grandma’s recipe, just cooking our rice is a 23-step, three-hour-long process.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kokoyo Nyonya’s kitchen is a small place, packed with ingredients and cookware.<\/p>\n
Aditi Bharade<\/p>\n
While the first few weeks of operations were smooth, the real challenge came after we had an article written about us, and we started seeing a wave of customers.<\/p>\n
The crowd was overwhelming, and I realized we couldn’t cope with it. That’s when I had to abandon some of the things my grandma told me to do, like ditching a wok in favor of a deep fryer to fry chicken.<\/p>\n
Moving after less than a year<\/p>\n
But less than a year after I opened in Serangoon, I had to move. My rent was also too high: SG$13,500 monthly. I couldn’t afford it.<\/p>\n
And there were a lot of older people in the neighborhood where I opened my restaurant. I found that they weren’t too willing to spend a lot of money on food.<\/p>\n
In July, I moved to a smaller stall in a food court near Singapore’s Sixth Avenue, a wealthy neighborhood where people are willing to spend more.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ang’s new location is smaller, and his rent is lower.<\/p>\n
Aditi Bharade<\/p>\n
Rent here is much cheaper. I pay exactly half of what I did in my earlier location. I’ve also reduced the number of staff members from four to two.<\/p>\n
At first, I wasn’t used to the long days in the kitchen. I was sweaty and grumpy.<\/p>\n
But I later accepted that that’s what life as a restaurant owner is like. I work seven days a week, which doesn’t leave time for much else. I haven’t met my friends in a while, unless they come to see me.<\/p>\n
But I like that it’s not a repetitive job. Every day comes with a new problem, be it difficult customers or problems with staff.<\/p>\n
I don’t have regrets about trying to start something of my own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ernest Ang, the 24-year-old founder of Kokoyo Nyonya Delights,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,25611,275,299,9841,42204,43367,43365,3591,8208,16598,43366,34546,23098,19447,3997],"class_list":["post-57521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-customer","tag-day","tag-food","tag-grandma","tag-grandmother","tag-kitchen","tag-kokoyo-nyonya-delights","tag-lot","tag-month","tag-operation","tag-peranakan-food","tag-recipe","tag-rent","tag-restaurant","tag-singapore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}