When we first featured Renee Tang Eyrn and her home-based business, Jelebu Dry Laksa, at the height of the pandemic, she was one woman with a wok, sending dishes out of her HDB flat's kitchen in Jelebu Road.Two years later, she has opened her own 70-seat restaurant at VivoCity, in partnership with F&B group Tipsy Collective.
That’s not all – she also has a supportive fan base. “I have customers approaching me here, saying they enjoy the food or they supported me back in the ‘circuit breaker’ days,” she shared. Duck confit Teochew braised risotto. Renee Tang's Teochew grandmother used to make braised duck with vinegared chilli, and she recreated the flavours from memory.
“There's no moment that you can slack off. And you always need to adapt to the current situation, whether it’s COVID-19 regulations or keeping up with trends. You need to know what everyone else is doing, because consumers’ preferences and tastes are always changing. And, not just be new, but also sustainable. People chase things that are always sold out, but how long can that last?” That’s why her menu offers options for kids, the elderly and vegetarians, “not just people who love laksa”.
“I promised myself that I really owed it to myself to achieve something when I decided to quit a comfortable paying job to work in a kitchen,” she said. “So, I think now that I have this space, I can kind of give myself a pat on the back.”