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Benz Hui’s Daughter, A Cafe Owner, Loses Sense Of Taste After Contracting Covid-19

But the young F&B boss is still launching a new seafood menu, which includes a wholesome Golden Fish Soup, for her Cafe Bakeaholic’s Orchard outlet.

Other than global inflation, one of the issues that F&B owners have to grapple with these days is Covid-19. It gets even trickier when one contracts the coronavirus and loses their sense of taste that is vital for their livelihood.

One of the business owners down with Covid-19 is Hong Kong actor Benz Hui’s daughter Charmaine, who runs three eateries: two outlets for her Cafe Bakeaholic, and a mod cha chaan teng called Juju. The 25-year-old had caught Covid just recently, and is currently recovering from it. “I can’t taste anything now, it’s terrible,” she exclaims, adding that she is also suffering from a bad cough as a lingering side effect. “Luckily I have my team helping me with the tasting [for food],” she laughs. After coming down with Covid-19, Charmaine has also become more health-conscious. “I believe what we put in our body is very important,” she explains, which is why she is launching a sustainable seafood menu with clean-eating options at Cafe Bakeaholic’s Wheelock Place outlet.

 

Seafood cafe

According to Charmaine, the expanded menu will offer heartier mains for customers, on top of her existing dessert-and-coffee menu. The idea to launch a seafood menu came to her by chance, as she had gotten to know a sustainable fish farm owner from Kuala Lumpur. 

“We went to his farm and factory in KL to see them for ourselves. The supplier is a very nice guy — he is using some [earnings] from his farm to build schools in Malaysia,” she says. 

The new seafood items include a Seafood Platter ($19/$35/$69) in three sizes: Single, Couple and Mega. 

The platters consist of lemongrass barramundi skewers, tiger prawns, prawn paste-marinated barramundi chunks served with a side of grilled veggies (the Mega platter comes with additional grilled Alaskan scallops). 

Circa September, Charmaine is planning to install a chiller in her cafe stocked with fresh seafood. “Customers can choose the seafood they want and have it either grilled, seared, baked or fried,” she shares.

Check out more dishes below: 

Golden Fish Soup, $9.90

Fish soup, the perennial Singaporean comfort food, is offered as an appetiser at Charmaine’s cafe. The Golden Fish Soup is prepared with broth that has been boiled for six hours with fish and strained before pumpkin purée is added. 

Otak Wrap, $12.90 

This appetiser features fried otah cubes with fresh lettuce, which you are meant to consume Korean ssambap-style using the lettuce as a wrap. 

Alaska Scallop Quinoa, $19.90 

Although it’s served as an appetiser, Charmaine says this dish, topped with seared Alaskan scallops, is substantial enough to be a main. 

Tom Yum Seafood Pasta, $19.50

While there’s a laksa pasta on Cafe Bakeaholic’s menu, Charmaine is introducing a tangy tom yum version served with tiger prawns. 

Apple Tea Pie, $18.90 

Charmaine also has a new flavour for her croffle, which now comes with cinnamony apple pie filling and house-made earl grey tea cream. 

#02-19 Wheelock Place, 501 Orchard Rd, S238880. Open daily 12pm-9pm. www.instagram.com/bakeaholic_sg 

Photos: Alvin Teo

Related topics

cafe bakeaholic benz hui charmaine hui wheelock place fresh seafood

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