Some folks want to travel and relax when they retire, but husband-and-wife couple Ng Kei Yong, 62, and Jullie Tay, 55, decided to open a min jiang kueh hawker stall instead. “Both of us wanted to have a hawker stall after we retire [from our longtime jobs],” says Jullie. In March this year, she started her own stall called My Pancake at Dunman Food Centre, which specialises in old-school min jiang kueh.

She stumbled into the hawker trade only by chance, when she was unexpectedly retrenched in 2016 from her glamourous two-decade job as the regional general manager for a local fashion company, which was going through restructuring. “I was taking care of the fashion division operations like merchandising for brands like Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bebe and Ted Baker,” she says.

As she had been travelling extensively for work, Jullie decided to take a break and pick up baking “pies, cakes and sourdough bread” from YouTube videos after she left her longtime fashion career. “I explored working with flour, and even set up an Instagram account [to share my bakes] and made a lot of international friends. Then I chanced upon this hawker development programme by NEA,” she shares.

She ended up learning how to make min jiang kueh under the programme, which took her almost two years. “I also apprenticed at [min jiang kueh chain] Granny’s Pancake for two months,” recalls Jullie.

She developed an interest in min jiang kueh, as she says: “We find that making min jiang kueh is a dying trade, and we wanted to offer heritage food where the work is not too much and [the setting up] cost is not too high.” Her min jiang kueh is made by pouring smooth batter onto a large old-fashioned griddle, which cooks the batter to a golden-brown consistency.

Kei Yong, who’s a full-time pilot for a local airline, occasionally helps his wife out at the stall when he’s not scheduled for flights. The 62-year-old has been “flying for 40 years, starting in the Air Force”.

As his pilot’s license expires when he turns 65, he jokes that becoming a hawker is his “retirement plan”, affably sharing that he even bought a 'Good Morning' towel to hang around my neck so I can look like a hawker .

As for why he fell in love with hawkering, he says: “I was intrigued by min jiang kueh-making and saw that it was quite fulfilling for my wife. It’s something different that keeps us going. You learn how to make the pancakes up to your standard, and one of the good things about running this business is that you can meet people and socialise.”

Jullie and Kei Yong offer a simple min jiang kueh menu with just five classic flavours: Peanut ($1/pc), Red Bean ($1/pc), Coconut ($1.20/pc), Peanut & Peanut Butter ($1.20/pc) and Peanut & Sweet Corn ($1.20/pc).

“I believe our min jiang kueh should bring you some memories of when you were a child, and people keep looking for heritage stalls because we tend to look for things we are familiar with,” explains Kei Yong.

He adds that there were customers who requested newfangled toppings like cheese. “But this is not something we ate when we were young. In order to keep the heritage and nostalgia, it’s good to maintain the old flavours,” he says.

You can buy the min jiang kueh by the slice, or get a whole pan for a single flavour. We even have a customer buying a pan of kosong min jiang kueh 'cos they like it that way, says Kei Yong.

The min jiang kueh from My Pancake is pretty fab; the pancake is crispy-edged with a pillowy fluffiness. It hugs a generous layer of filling — order the Peanut & Peanut Butter, which has crunchy, sugary chopped peanuts folded within a dollop of thick, creamy peanut butter. Very shiok.

Compared to the decadent peanut butter flavour, this option with just chopped peanuts is not as enjoyable. We find the filling a tad dry, but it’s a faithful version of classic, olden-day min jiang kueh for those who like their pancakes strictly old-school. It’s also made to be less sweet, so folks who prefer less sugar should enjoy this.

Get the fluffy Coconut min jiang kueh here. Stuffed with juicy grated coconut, it makes for a delightful breakfast or teatime treat.

The Red Bean flavour is decent — the same expertly-made min jiang kueh is wrapped around sticky, chewy sweet red bean paste.

This chopped peanuts and creamy sweet corn combination is an acquired taste for us; we can’t quite get used to the sandy, gritty chopped nuts with goopy, crunchy sweet corn (the kind you’d find on ice kacang). Get this only if you really like the individual ingredients.

Address: #02-18 Dunman Food Centre, 271 Onan Rd, S424768.

Opening hours: Open daily except Mon, 7am-3pm.

Photos: Kelvin Chia