Hong Junyang Became A ‘Hawker’ Thanks To Chew Chor Meng

Singer-songwriter Hong Junyang’s new Korean food stall Oppa Kitchen has been drawing in the crowds since it opened at the buzzy Tam Chiak Kopitiam in Hougang two weeks ago. The newly-opened coffee shop is co-owned by actor Chew Chor Meng, Love 972 DJ Dennis Chew, and food blogger Maureen Ow, better known as Miss Tam Chiak.

“There has been a lot of hype about the coffee shop and my team cannot cope with the crowd. We’ve been slammed for turning customers away,” Junyang, 42, tells 8days.sg, adding that the waiting time is around 20 minutes, an improvement from one hour when they first started business. The stall, Junyang’s first hawker venture, sells comfort K-cuisine like bibimbap, kimchi stew, and fried chicken.

Serial restaurateur

If you find the name Oppa Kitchen familiar, that’s because it started out as a cloud kitchen in Bukit Batok in January this year offering a smaller menu.

“We only did deliveries, and the food was cooked by the same chef. It was a means for us to test waters and get feedback. We shut the cloud kitchen in June to open this stall,” shares Junyang.

He also co-owns Thai chain The Original Boat Noodle and bubble tea shop Machi Machi. His café-cum-cloud kitchen Caf (short for Clickafood) and Indian banana leaf rice restaurant Bananabro, both born during Covid, shut down in 2022.

“We wanted to explore new ventures, but there was too much unpredictability during Covid with all the evolving dine-in measures and working-from-home, it made things very challenging,” shares Junyang.

While he declined to reveal how much he and his biz partners lost from the closures, he says they “weren’t [badly] burnt in the past few years”.

Wouldn’t have opened hawker stall if not for Chew Chor Meng

A fan of hawker culture, Junyang jumped at the opportunity to start his first hawker concept when Chor Meng invited him to open a stall at Tam Chiak Kopitiam. The latter’s hawker stall 888 Mookata, which he co-owns with Dennis, has been operating within the same premises (before it was rebranded Tam Chiak Kopitiam) for six years before he took over operations at the coffee shop.

“What better way than to do it at Chor Meng and Dennis’ coffee shop? If you told me to work with another kopitiam owner or apply for a hawker stall on my own, I wouldn’t do it, at least not for now, ’cos there’s a lot I still need to learn. Plus, Chor Meng let me have his previous stall space at the prime spot at the front of the coffee shop and took another one tucked inside [for his mookata biz]. Everyone can see my stall when they walk past,” shares Junyang.

Calling them “wonderful landlords” who’re always looking out for him, Junyang says: “It’s very unlikely I will find other landlords like them. I don’t know if they gave me a discount [for the stall rental], but I doubt it because that would be very unfair to the rest of the tenants.”

So will we see him focusing on hawker concepts in future?

“No, I’ll focus on this one for now. Unless Chor Meng plans to open another coffee shop then I’ll join him. That would be the ideal situation. If it were another coffee shop operator, there would be a lot of other factors to consider,” says Junyang.

You can’t miss Oppa Kitchen with its bright neon lights, colourful signboard, quirky mascot, which is modelled after their Korean chef and biz partner, Nick Kang, 48.

Chef Nick used to work at popular Korean chicken galbi restaurant chain Yoogane and was part of the team that helped set up its Singapore franchise in 2015. After he left Yoogane in 2021, he worked as an F&B consultant.

It was at Yoogane that Nick got to know Junyang’s biz partner and became fast friends with the singer. “Nick would cook for us during gatherings, so when we, a gang of not-so-young guys, decided to start this business, we named it Oppa Kitchen,” says Junyang.

The hawker biz, which they co-own with three partners from Junyang’s boat noodle chain, cost around $50K to set up.

Don’t expect to see Junyang slogging daily at the stall, though

You won’t be seeing Junyang much at the stall. Similar to his role at his other F&B businesses, he does marketing and leaves the operations to his partners and staff. “They have their way of doing things and I don’t want to disrupt their workflow. Even order-taking requires skill. I cannot multitask, what if I key orders wrongly? I will kena scolding from customers,” he says.

He will also be focusing more time on his music work, which is picking up and will see him travelling as part of JJ Lin’s backing vocalist on the JJ20 world tour as well as doing production for his upcoming singles.

The menu

Oppa Kitchen offers standard Korean dishes like kimchi cheese fried rice, bibimbap and army stew. But it’s the fusion Korean-style items that intrigue us, such as the curry fried chicken and honey butter fried chicken. Prices range from $9 for a bulgogi chicken rice set to $18 for cheese dak galbi (spicy marinated chicken with cheese).

Korean Curry Fried Chicken, $10 (8 DAYS Pick!)

Oppa Chicken offers four flavours of fried chicken. We start off with the curry fried chicken, which Junyang recommends. For $10, you get around seven pieces of boneless chicken thighs, which are simply marinated and dredged in batter, then coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried upon order. Tossed in an umami mix of Korean curry powder and parmesan cheese, the bite-sized chunks of chook are tender and juicy, and the skin thin and crispy. The bold flavours of the curry boast a good hit of spices — very addictive.

Bibimbap Chicken, $10 (8 DAYS Pick!)

On a bed of short-grain rice sit stir-fried spicy chicken slices, seaweed, lettuce, sauteed carrots, beansprouts, onion, all topped with an onsen egg. Though not as spicy as we’d like, the chicken, marinated in ingredients like chilli flakes, soy sauce and leek, is tasty with a subtle smokiness. It’s delish when paired with the sesame oil-spiked gochujang (Korean chilli paste paste) sauce, and the light, wholesome egg drop soup rounds up the meal.

Kimchi Jjigae, $10

Cooked in an earthenware pot, the kimchi stew served piping hot and brimming with boiled pork belly slices, tofu, mushroom and glass noodles hits the spot. The robust soup is tangy and fiery, if a tad salty, and the chewy noodles slurp-worthy. The pork belly has a good fat-to-meat ratio but could be more tender. Comes with a bowl of rice.

Budae Jjigae Ramyeon, $9

This hearty single portion army stew comes with the usual suspects like luncheon meat, sausages, enoki mushroom, Korean fish cake slices and kimchi. The umami soup is properly spicy, while baked beans and cheddar cheese toppings add a sinful hit of richness. Quite shiok.

Bottom line

Simple but tasty and hearty Korean fare. The highlight is Oppa’s unique variety of fried chicken, which sets it apart from the usual Korean hawker stall options. The chook is comparable to those from casual Korean restaurants — but at a cheaper price point. Drop by early to avoid the queue.

Oppa Kitchen is at #01-349 Tam Chiak Kopitiam, 212 Hougang St 21, S530212. Open daily except Mon, 12pm-2.30pm; 5.30pm-8pm. More info via Instagram.

Photos: Kelvin Chia