What is it like being Jack Neo’s kid? If you’re his daughter Ethel Neo, that would involve makan trips for prawn mee, a “bonding food” for father-and-daughter. As they used to stay in the east side of Singapore, Jack would bring a young Ethel to his favourite prawn noodle hawker stalls in the east and central areas.

As a kid, Ethel, now 29, had to deal with constant interruptions from her famous dad’s fans. “I remember when I was about seven, I was eating with my dad when a random man just pulled a chair to our table and started eating and chatting with us,” she recalls. “Back when there were no camera phones, people used to ask for [Jack’s] autograph. Now they usually ask for photos.”

Inspired by her childhood memories, she recently launched a frozen Premium Prawn Mee Soup pack under Chu Collagen, the soup brand she created during the Circuit Breaker this year with her husband Peter Lau, 35. While the brand started out offering a chicken-based collagen soup, it now includes the prawn mee soup that’s based on Ethel’s own recipe, which involves boiling prawn heads to get a rich stock.

According to Peter, they introduced this flavour to help people skip the labour-intensive process of making their own prawn soup. “When Ethel wanted to recreate [hawker-style] prawn mee soup for her family, it took a few weeks for her to collect the prawn heads and many hours of boiling [to make the soup]. By coming up with this flavor, we hope to offer convenience to our customers,” he says.

The prawn mee soup is priced at $22 for a one-litre pack, and is now available only via Chu Collagen’s webstore. Come end-November, it will also be stocked at FairPrice Finest supermarkets, where the brand’s chicken collagen soup is currently retailing. “Our collagen soup sold out at nine outlets on the first day of its launch,” shares Peter (there are currently 27 FairPrice Finest outlets islandwide).

The gluten and lactose-free spicy prawn mee soup is spiked with sambal chilli, and can be kept for up to a year in the freezer (or one month, if refrigerated). Chu’s website recommends using the soup to whip up a bowl of prawn mee, or even as a base to make prawn bisque.

Peter and Ethel are also currently expecting their second child (they have a 22-month-old son named Flynn). The couple had a gender reveal mini party for Baby No.2, who’s due next February. In attendance were grandparents Jack Neo and his wife, Irene Kng.