After illicitly touching the World Cup trophy recently, Salt Bae became the talk of the town… again. The Turkish chef — whose real name is Nusret Gokce — originally went viral in 2017. Purely for dramatically sprinkling salt on a steak at his restaurant, the condiment trickling down his forearm before landing on the food. Yummy, we know.

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Photo: Yip Jieying

JB's own Salt Bae

Nearer to us, Johor Bahru also has its own ‘Salt Bae’, whom 8days.sg recently spotted at a stall at the Chill Day Night pop-up market in Austin. Incidentally, it's near Yao Wenlong's pao fan restaurant. Called Chadohatsu, the stall is fronted by a large poster of a cartoon Salt Bae-lookalike sporting a singlet, tattoos and his signature sunglasses and ponytail.

Instead of salt, the cartoon character was sprinkling coriander over a cup of lemon tea, which was fancily advertised as ‘Duck Shit Coriander Lemon Tea — Violently Punched 30 Times’.

Photo: Yip Jieying

Lemon Tea Bae

Now, there’s a lot to unpack here. First of all, there is no duck shit in this tea. ‘Duck shit tea’ merely refers to the Chinese Dan Cong oolong tea, which was rumoured to have gotten its memorably filthy name from the tea farmers protecting their prized varietal, by telling people they simply added duck poop to fertilise the soil.

As for punched lemon tea — this beverage recently became popular in Singapore (if you have seen the stall at almost every Food Republic food court) — and is made by crushing the juice out of lemons with force using a large muddler. The juice is then added to brewed tea.

As a finishing touch, Chadohatsu adds liberal amounts of coriander to its lemon tea. And if you are ‘lucky’, Lemon Tea Bae will personally add the herb to your drink. Yes, cartoon Lemon Tea Bae is based on a real person. 

Photo: Instagram/ @mendro0802 Mendro Tan, 32, the owner of Chadohatsu, has a bod that could give viral ‘hunkle’ Chuando a run for his money. Netizens nicknamed Mendro ‘Uncle Knife Scar’, due to several prominently long scars slashing across his six-pack abs.

Other than a catchy nickname, he has also coined his own Mandarin catchphrase: “人在江湖飘哪有不挨刀, 社会我刀疤” (which translate to: “Drifting through society it is inevitable to get slashed by a sword; I bear the scars from society”. Cheem.)

“I have these scars because when I was still in my mum’s womb, she had a Caesarean delivery. When the doctor operated on her to deliver me, I came out with these scars,” he deadpanned to 8days.sg before cackling: “Just kidding! I will keep the truth a secret and let people guess.”

Photo: Instagram/ @mendro0802

He used to be a fashion designer 

According to Mendro, his flamboyant image “came naturally — it started unconsciously.” Before the pandemic hit, he was a fashion designer with his own label and shop in Skudai called 90 Tailor. “But because of Covid-19 and the MCO [Malaysia’s version of the Circuit Breaker], business wasn’t good and I changed careers,” he explained.

Photo: Instagram/ @mendro0802

Coriander in lemon tea

From his appearance and business ideas, you can kind of tell that Mendro has a flair for marketing and penchant for cheeky trolling. As if punching poor lemons 30 times for lemon tea isn’t enough, he adds polarising coriander to the mix to torture human beings too.

But for those who like coriander, the herb is a pretty sophisticated addition to jazz up tangy lemon tea. Each cup of hand-punched coriander lemon tea costs RM13 (S$4).

It appears that lemon-punching is just an extra workout for Mendro. He occasionally pops by his temporary stall at the Austin night market. For those who want to catch a glimpse of him, he quipped: “I’m not always there. Have to see luck lah (laughs).”

Chadohatsu’s pop-up stall is at the outdoor carpark at Jln Austin Heights 8/2, Taman Mount Austin, 81100 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. Open from now till Jan 19, 5pm-12am daily. For more info on Chadohatsu, go to Instagram or Facebook.

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