SINGAPORE — When Andy Tan decided to open a stall at a hawker centre on Circuit Road selling only muah chee two years ago, he was clearly not thinking about turning it into a “big business”.

Fact is, after leaving a career in the automotive industry and unsure where he would work next, the 53-year-old was inspired by a somewhat romantic notion, one that concerned the preservation of a heritage food.

“I felt very sad for our local muah chee when I saw them at the pasar malam (night market),” he recalled, explaining how they were not as good as he remembers them to be. But this, he thought to himself, was the challenge he was looking for. And though he knew he did not know how to cook, he said he felt convinced he could do anything he put his heart into.

Driven by a vision to “upgrade the muah chee”, Tan began experimenting and he quickly learnt a great deal about tweaking the methods and ingredients to suit his taste and the consistency he desired. “I started trying to cook it at my mother’s home; I just bought the ingredients and cooked every day,” Tan said. “Honestly, no one taught me.” He added that he is not well educated, and instead of referring to a recipe, he would ask those who knew what ingredients he needed and how he should cook it. He shared how early failures with making muah chee drove him to figure out what he needed to do to fix problems, which was what he had to do more than forty times before 
he succeeded.

Tan felt that the best way to know if his rendition passed muster was to see if consumers liked it. With the financial help of a good friend, he opened Heavenly Snack, choosing a matured estate as he felt the older customers could help him learn more about his muah chee.

The first nine months were the most enjoyable. “I didn’t earn money, I lost money,” he said, stressing that he had enjoyed the process. Customers would share their thoughts about what they liked and didn’t like about his muah chee and he would use the feedback to make changes where necessary. Working on the changes, he inadvertently came to the conclusion that there was no one recipe for muah chee — “the recipe was alive”, he said.

This new insight supported his plans for more inspired variants. Tan had noticed how Japanese and Taiwanese adaptations of the glutinous rice snack were sold at shopping centres, while the Singapore muah chee as he knew it was predominantly found at night markets. So he conceptualised ways to “upgrade” the snack — so that it would appeal to the new generation — with new flavours, such as black sesame, pandan and coconut, and even strawberry and blueberry flavoured ones. He served them in prettily designed boxes, complete with the company logo.

Tan wakes up at around 5am and by 6am he is prepping and cooking the day’s projected supply, which ranges between 230 and 250 boxes, retailing at S$2.50 for the brown sugar “white muah chee” and S$2.80 for the “black” variant which features black sesame. Given the lack of manpower, these are the only two flavours he is currently serving on a regular basis.

Still, Tan dreams the next generation will eventually come to share his passion to learn the craft and go on to create their own versions. Eventually, he hopes to see new versions of muah chee in more places across the island.

It might take just one or two young entrepreneurs, and they could be any of the four Singapore Polytechnic students who are learning from him, including his 19-year-old son, whom he had started to train the last couple of months. He added that he “only teaches locals how to cook local muah chee”, and hopes that every Singaporean will one day be able to cook it at home. “That is called Singapore muah chee,” he said.

Heavenly Snack is located at Blk 79A Circuit Road #01-106. Open from 11.30am to 7.30pm (or while stocks last), Tuesdays to Sundays. Closed on Mondays.