New Station Snack Bar owner’s daughter opens her own eatery

If the name New Station Rice Bar rings a bell, you may have been reminded of New Station Snack Bar, the perpetually packed salted egg rice eatery at Far East Plaza with long dinner queues. You’re not far off though – New Station Rice Bar is a new zi char (home-style dishes) shop opened by Chloe Tan, 30, the daughter of New Station’s boss. And yes, it also sells the joint’s famous salted egg pork rice. 

New Station Rice Bar opened at Fortune Centre in March 2024, taking over the space that used to be Japanese Curry Express (another popular stall that was known for its mentaiko salmon dons). Prior to opening this shop, Tan had been working at her parents’ Far East Plaza diner for seven years as their front-of-house (though she occasionally cooked there whenever the chefs were on MC), before deciding to branch out on her own. 

“I just wanted to try a new and different concept, and I think I have a lot of good recipes that I wasn’t able to do at my parents’ place because their menu was already very extensive,'' she told 8days.

PARENTS "VERY AGAINST" HER OPENING HER OWN ZI CHAR BUSINESS

Despite owning a successful eatery, Tan said her parents did not approve of her entering their line of work, as “zi char is a very male-dominated industry”. She explained: “You’re always in front of the hot stove, and alcoholism and gambling addiction is an issue (with some staff). That’s why my parents didn’t want me to be in this line.”

As she grew up watching her parents work long hours, Tan said she “didn’t really like F&B”, and ended up studying accountancy in NTU. She worked a short stint as an auditor after graduation, but resigned after just three months. “I didn’t like the job, and I realised I was already so used to the F&B lifestyle,” she recalled.

This prompted her to begin working at her parents’ stall – something they weren’t super keen on in the beginning, but ultimately decided they could use her help.

However, when she decided to open New Station Rice Bar, her parents were “very against it”. Tan explained: “They were like, ‘There are so many other things you can do, why must you open one more new shop when F&B is already so hard and competitive?’” 

But her parents didn’t even get the chance to stop her. Joking that she was “very rebellious”, the ambitious millennial signed a tenancy lease before informing her parents, and invested S$40,000 from her own savings to set up shop. When she finally told her parents, Tan recalled: “They got a shock. They were very angry and kept saying, ‘Faster get out (of the lease)!’”

But thankfully, her parents have since come around to Tan's chosen career. She said: “They’re very supportive now. They realised that I planned the menu all by myself, and I think I serve pretty good food, so they reckoned that this could work. If it doesn’t, at least I tried.” Currently, her mum comes down to her stall to help out with food prep and order-taking whenever she’s free, while Tan and a hired chef take turns to cook.

Tan sees her business as an extension of her parents’ stall, hence the intentional decision to give it a similar name. She shared: “I sell the same salted egg pork rice, so I don’t want it to seem like I’m different from them,” adding that she wanted her shop to be linked to her parents’ as she is “trying to continue my dad’s legacy”. 

She noted that her parents also view it the same way. “It’s not competition, because we’re not located super close to each other. It’s more like we’re affiliated,” she explained. 

LEARNED COOKING FROM A HONG KONG CHEF

Since her parents didn’t want her in the business, Tan said her dad initially refused to teach her how to cook. She struggled to find a mentor, as all the chefs she knew through her parents “refused to teach (her), as they felt that a zi char kitchen was not an environment for a lady to be in”. 

When asked if she was upset at her father for not mentoring her, Tan admitted: “Yes, just a little bit.” But she conceded: “Afterwards I felt like, okay, if you don’t want to teach me, then I’ll go and learn from someone else.” 

Fortuitously, her friend introduced her to a retired chef from Hong Kong, whom she reverently called Zhang shifu (‘teacher’ in Mandarin). The 75-year-old chef is trained in Cantonese cuisine, and had worked in a Chinese restaurant in London for 16 years before retiring in Singapore.

She said that Zhang shifu “very luckily didn’t mind teaching me on my days off from work and through him, I learned how to do things fast and cook all the dishes”. 

Tan paid him a “very reasonable” fee of S$150 per day for teaching, and learned how to whip up dishes like chilli oil dumplings, wok hei porridge, and how to boil good soup stock from him. 

As she picked up some skills from Master Zhang, the other chefs who initially turned her down for an apprenticeship saw that she was serious about learning how to cook, and began teaching her their recipes as well. Her dad never ended up teaching her how to cook. “He realised he didn’t need to teach me,” Tan laughed. 

THE MENU

New Station Rice Bar has a small menu featuring nine mains: Salted Egg Pork Chop or Chicken Cube (S$8.50), Mapo Tofu with Minced Meat (S$9), Lu Rou Fan with Shitake Mushroom (S$8.50), Assam Sauce Fish Katsu (S$8), Caramelised Marmite Chicken (S$8), Chinchalok Fish Katsu (S$8), Gu Lau Rou (S$8), Collagen Clam Soup with Wujiapi Wine and Rice (S$10) and Gong Bao Ji with Sesame (S$8).

Tan also has monthly specials, where she introduces potential new dishes to get customers’ feedback. This month, her best-selling specials include Chloe Style Curry Rice (S$9.50) and Chilli Oil Dumplings (S$8 for six pieces), both of which will be added to her permanent menu. 

SALTED EGG PORK CHOP, S$8.50

Featuring meaty chunks of fried pork chop doused in a creamy salted egg yolk sauce and topped with a runny-yolked fried egg with crispy edges, this dish tastes just like the one served at New Station Snack Bar (Tan confirms it’s cooked with the same recipe). 

The velvety sauce – a concoction of salted egg yolk, butter, curry leaves, cili padi and a dash of evaporated milk – has a slightly runnier consistency than the usual zi char salted egg offerings. But that’s a good thing. It makes this dish more palatable and less cloying.

MAPO TOFU WITH MINCED MEAT, S$9

Our bowl of mapo tofu came loaded with silken tofu cubes and minced meat. Made with three types of bean paste, the dish is flavourful, with a delightful mouth-numbing sensation from the Sichuan peppercorns. It’s layered with both sesame oil and homemade chilli oil, which makes it extra fragrant but also slightly greasy and cloying.

CHLOE STYLE CURRY RICE S$9.50 

Don’t mistake this for a Japanese Curry Express copy, despite its outward appearance. Our plate has crispy, juicy chicken katsu served with curry, a soft-boiled egg and seasoned pickles. 

The crispy chicken cutlet is generously portioned, but the star of the show is definitely the robust curry, which tastes somewhat like a mix of sweet Japanese-style curry and spicy Indian curry, though Tan said she does not use any Japanese ingredients. 

Instead, it leans heavier on local flavour, imbued with her own house-made spice mix and Indian curry spices.

CHILLI OIL DUMPLINGS, S$8 FOR 6 PIECES

The classic Chinese ‘hong you chao shou’ dumplings here are generously stuffed parcels of minced pork rolled with bits of earthy squid, crunchy black fungus, carrots and shallots. The succulent filling is savoury with a good bite, while the house-made chilli oil – laced with chopped dried red chillies and drizzled over the dumplings – adds a spicy punchiness to the dish. 

BOTTOM LINE

For fans of New Station Snack Bar at Far East Plaza, second-gen Chloe Tan’s Rice Bar sister outlet is pretty much more of the same good thing in a just-as-accessible location. It’s worth visiting for this plucky young boss’ rendition of her parents’ iconic salted egg pork chop rice, or for her own hearty creations, which she painstakingly makes from scratch. If you’re looking for a spicy meal, her fiery chilli oil dumplings and curry offerings also hit the spot. 

New Station Rice Bar is at #03-04 Fortune Centre, 190 Middle Rd, Singapore 188979. Tel: 8817-5572. Open daily except Sun, 10.30am-8.30pm. More info via their Facebook and Instagram. 

This story was originally published in 8Days.