Yao Wenlong makes darn good pao fan. He personally cooks at his restaurant in Johor Bahru, Sun Gourmet Kitchen, which is so popular that even veteran actor Terence Cao had to wait half an hour for a table. But the eatery’s business was recently hit hard by Covid-19 and Malaysia’s implementation of a movement control order (MCO). “Our business dropped by 80% to 90%,” Wenlong tells 8days.sg over the phone in Mandarin. “We’re just trying to keep our staff and continue paying their salaries. All of our shareholders are not drawing a salary now to save the company.”

To make ends meet, Wenlong is utilising the restaurant’s reserve fund. “We’ve a reserve that we’re dipping into now. We’re prepared to use the funds to tide over the next few months. There’s enough to last us for three months, but we’re in deep trouble if this continues. We can only try to stay afloat, then we can start again when the situation gets better,” he shares.

It doesn’t help that his eatery’s star dish, pao fan, is more suited for dining in. “There are still customers who tapow pao fan, just that are fewer of them. Maybe ’cos people have no mood to eat elaborate meals now, so they have been going for simpler food.” To adjust to the changing demand, Sun Gourmet Kitchen has started rolling out no-frills dishes like “fried rice, fried noodles and kway teow”. He reckons, “Our pao fan isn’t the most suitable for takeaway, so we initially didn’t work with any delivery companies. But now we’re serving more economical dishes that people can order for takeaway.”

And there’s the issue of Wenlong, who lives in his native JB and commutes to Singapore for work, being ‘stuck’ here for now (but more on that later). While he usually helms his restaurant, he has passed the baton to his business partner, a Malaysian chef who’s based in Brunei. Wenlong explains, “He rushed back from Brunei a day before Malaysia closed its doors [on March 18]. Fortunately he did, or else I don’t think our restaurant can survive. The kitchen staff and I are all so new to F&B. So he has been overseeing the menu and managing the staff.”

Despite the dire situation, Wenlong is trying to look on the bright side. “We keep our restaurant open ’cos we still have to pay our rent and utilities bill anyway. We use this time to train our employees — they said they have been so bored since our business got quiet. So we’re teaching them to cook new dishes.”

The Mediacorp actor is now temporarily staying in Singapore till Malaysia’s travel restrictions are lifted. He shares, “The company has booked a room for me at Furama Riverfront hotel. I could have gone back to JB, but I’ll have to quarantine at a hotel there for 14 days, and I have to quarantine another 14 days when I return to Singapore. It’ll affect my work schedule very badly, so I’ll just stay here. I don’t want to disrupt my filming.”

But the father-of-two is “mentally prepared” to be in limbo, even though he admits he misses his family: “I used to go on overseas work trips for three to four months at a time, but the ‘mood’ was different back then. Since my kids came along, I’ve never been apart from my family for so long.” He made it to Singapore on March 17, narrowly missing the massive Causeway jam that occurred on March 18 just before the MCO kicked in. He recalls, “I drove here at around 10am. I’ve been shuttling back and forth for a few decades, so I can ‘calculate’ when a jam will happen (laughs). Everyone knows there’ll be a huge jam on March 18, but people still travel here for their rice bowl. They just want to make a living.”

While filming for drama productions is now on hold due to the circuit breaker, Wenlong says he has wrapped up filming for his upcoming Ch 8 drama A Quest to Heal just in time. Which means the man is now staying in his hotel room with little to occupy his time. He quips, “I have gone for hours without speaking a word. I can’t talk to my water flask! (Laughs) I complained about being bored to my wife and she scolded me. She said, ‘You’re not the only one suffering. The whole world is dealing with this’. And some of my friends said they envy me. They’ve been so busy that they’re craving for some alone time in a room.”

Wenlong jokes that he’s now on a “solo holiday”. His days consist of “eating an apple and oatmeal in the morning, and going out to tapow at Tiong Bahru Market or Zion Riverside Food Centre and take in some sun in the afternoon. Then I’ll go back to my room to meditate for half an hour and exercise, and at night I’ll watch TV and do some promotional stuff for my restaurant. I’m very disciplined. I’ve been eating light, since I’m now mostly sedentary. I eat mainly vegetarian food, and only consume meat once every five to six days.”

He also Facetimes and texts his family, who are currently in Malacca at his in-laws’ home. “My whole family is very independent. My wife is independent and she has trained our kids well. I also feel at ease knowing that my in-laws are helping to take care of them. I’m the least independent one! I’m more worried about myself since I’ve been going out to tapow food (guffaws). But I always wear a mask, and I shower immediately when I get back to my room.”

Due to the drastic dip in his F&B business, Wenlong says his income has been affected. He reckons, “It can’t be helped. I’ll just have to break into my retirement fund! (Laughs) But I've always been frugal. I don’t drive an expensive car or live in a fancy house. My biggest expense is my kids’ education. We used to go out for Japanese food once a month as a family, but we don’t do that anymore.”

There were plans to open more Sun Gourmet Kitchen outlets, though that has been scuppered by Covid-19. Wenlong says, “We decided to hold off [on opening new outlets]. Luckily we didn’t open more shops before this, or we'll be even more strained now. I think we can still do F&B [post-Covid-19]. Maybe rental rates will go down ’cos people are not confident about investing, and there’ll be retrenched staff looking for jobs so it might be easier to hire a crew. We shall see how much is left in our bank after this! We might have to start all over again.”