Millennials Lee Yong Wen (far right), 30, and Benjamin Quah (left), 31, have been through the wringer since venturing into the hawker world. The secondary school pals quit their jobs – Yong Wen was once a DJ, before switching to F&B operations while Benjamin worked in banking – in 2018 and opened Kinobe, a Japanese beef bowl stall, in Amoy Street Food Centre.

They broke even within seven months, giving them the confidence to start another venture in 2020: Overcooked Mookata, a Thai-style barbecue stall at a coffeeshop in Ang Mo Kio. Unfortunately for them, they opened midway into the pandemic – just days before the Circuit Breaker – leading to months of slow sales and losses.

Earlier this year, the resilient duo came up with yet another new concept: Mr. Meepok. It’s a hawker stall selling Japanese-inflected bak chor mee (including maze soba-style, an unusual fusion creation inspired by a dry ramen dish topped with spicy minced meat that’s popular in Nagoya), fishball noodles and laksa, which they opened in a Clementi West kopitiam in January. They then decided to close Kinobe permanently, which had been dormant after the food centre’s three-month renovation completed earlier this year, and transformed the stall into their second Mr. Meepok outlet in April.

Why bak chor mee?

Yong Wen tells 8days.sg his rationale for the unusual pivot: “When Amoy Street Food Centre was closed for renovations, it was one of the worst times for us as we couldn’t rely on Kinobe’s sales to make up for Overcooked Mookata’s losses.”

But he didn’t want to open another beef donburi stall, despite Kinobe’s initial success. “What we realised is that the cuisine we were selling [at Kinobe] is not an everyday kind of food – even if the reception is good, you can’t have donburi everyday like chicken rice or bak chor mee. So we were losing out on quite a bit of that business,” he continues. “Also, people usually don’t go for donburi in the mornings. We found it too restrictive.”

Instead of waiting for Amoy Street Food Centre to reopen, the hawkers boldly decided to open a new kopitiam stall in January at Clementi West together with their friend, Jerry Goh, a 31-year-old ex-civil servant and another silent partner. “It was right behind my house, so I know the area well and thought that [Mr. Meepok] would be able to work well there,” Yong Wen adds.

But why sell bak chor mee specifically? The hawker explains: "Two reasons. I personally like bak chor mee, so it was the first thing I thought of (laughs). Secondly, we felt that it's easier [to learn to cook] than chicken rice or roasted meat rice, for example."

Signed contract for new stall without a bak chor mee recipe

“We took a gamble, because we went in head first and signed the contract [for the Clementi stall] without an actual [bak chor mee] recipe,” the hawker says with a laugh. “We were thinking that at worst, we will lose the deposit. But I was quite confident of the location, so we went ahead.”

The hawkers spent the next few months developing their bak chor mee recipe through experimentation. “Every single day, we just kept trying. Because my partner and I didn’t come from a culinary background – due to our skill limitations, we were just focusing on creating a bowl of mee pok that wouldn’t get us scolded by customers (laughs),” Yong Wen shares.

Response to Mr. Meepok good so far… at least at Clementi outlet

As it turns out, business for their new venture is going quite well. “When we opened for the first week at Clementi, the response was overwhelming. We were a bit shocked, to be honest – the feedback was very good,” he shares. It went so well that they decided to keep Kinobe closed permanently, converting it instead into a second Mr. Meepok outlet early April. While biz at the Amoy Street outlet isn’t as robust as the Clementi branch yet, the towkays reckon it just needs more time. 

They’ll continue to run Overcooked Mookata too – Yong Wen shares they were on the verge of closing it for good as they neared the end of their stall’s lease in March. “But with the relaxation of dining rules [at the end of March], it changed instantaneously. With two people per table, we were still losing money. But the moment it was increased to five people, we started making a profit.” Naturally, he’s hoping for even better business now that dining restrictions have just been completely lifted.

Japanese-inflected bak chor mee menu

Mr. Meepok doesn’t serve just mee pok. There are five different bowls, three of which are Japanese-influenced variations of bak chor mee, including an unusual maze soba-esque one. Also on the menu: Laksa ($4) and Handmade Fishball Noodle ($3.20). While we didn’t get to try the food yet, here’s a look at some of the stall’s signature dishes:

Signature Minced Meat Noodle, $4.80

The signature bowl comes with modern fixings like an onsen egg and mock abalone slices, alongside the usual accompaniments like meatballs, braised mushrooms and minced pork. There’s a cheaper Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle ($3.80) for BCM purists, too.

Daily Noodle, $6

You’d be forgiven for mistaking this colourful bowl for Japanese maze soba. Here, mee pok and a chill-vinegar mix lurk beneath piles of soy-marinated minced meat, nori strips, an onsen egg and sheets of chashu. This fusion bak chor mee was concocted using a recipe generously shared by the guys’ hawker pal behind now-defunct Daily Noodles, a maze soba stall that used to be in Amoy Street Hawker Centre. Interesting.

The details

Mr. Meepok’s first outlet is at #01-1294, 727 Clementi West St 2, S120727. Tel: 8779-1844. Open weekdays, 7am – 2pm & 5pm – 9.45pm; weekends 7am – 3pm. More info via Facebook and Instagram.

Mr. Meepok’s second outlet is at #02-126, Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Rd, S069111. Open weekdays 7am – 2.30pm.

Photos: Mr. Meepok, @globbylicious/Instagram, @foodievivacous/Instagram