Recently on Sept 3 and 4, a curious advertisement ran in Chinese newspapers Shin Min Daily News and Lianhe Zaobao. Its header blared ‘Rolex Mee Master’, and below, the address of zi char eatery Kim's Famous Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee at 62B Jalan Eunos.
He apparently also couldn’t resist including snapshots of his beloved three Rolex watches and of himself, standing in front of his flashy Mercedes car giving towkay energy. Pretty impressive showmanship. Kue Kim adds that he had thought of passing his two-storey zi char eatery to his eldest son Hock Yong, but felt that the 52-year-old was not up to the task as he had apparently struggled with over 30 business failures over the years. This forced Kue Kim to look for a successor outside of his family to continue his legacy.
He tells Shin Min Daily News that his health is still robust, and he intends to stay on as a shareholder after selling his recipes and continue helping out to maintain his food quality.What led to Kue Kim falling out with his eldest son was Hock Yong failing to help pay the utility bill for their shop, among other triggers.
Hock Yong counters that he was financially strapped after their shop’s renovations, and fell behind in his payments for rent and utility bills. They were incurred several years after Kue Kim opened a four-storey restaurant in the ’90s serving seafood and shark’s fin. “There were many problems with the restaurant. I had just graduated from polytechnic, and decided to set up my own restaurant to help pay my father’s debts,” Hock Yong says.