A Hot Hideout: Red-hot “Singapore mala” brand started by three NTU hallmates known for scrambled eggs malatang
- A Hot Hideout was started by three hallmates in their second year in NTU.
- Since opening in 2020, the brand has opened seven outlets, with plans for 12 by end of the year.
- One of the reasons they decided to do mala was because someone trash talked them!
- The brand is famous for its creamy scrambled eggs and fried potato chips and lotus roots, which are unique for mala.
When you’re craving for supper and you’re stuck in your university hall, what do you do?
Most would just answer with “Order GrabFood, lor!”, but this trio of friends took their cravings further. A lot further.
Lee Ray Sheng, 25, Ye Anran, 26, and Zechary Hoe, 27, had a vastly different response: They became the co-founders behind one of the hottest-growing homegrown mala brands, A Hot Hideout.
Started from the cravings, now we here
Spice aficionados all over Singapore would have noticed A Hot Hideout popping up all over the island, but not many would hazard a guess that it’s the brainchild of three young entrepreneurs.
A Hot Hideout’s origins is actually quite a feel-good story: It started in 2020, when the trio were second-year undergraduates and hallmates at the time.
Anran dabbled in dance as her CCA and practice often left her hankering for late-night grub.
Alas, NTU’s secluded location necessitated car rides out to supper hotspots such as the infamous Ah Lian Bee Hoon near Pioneer MRT.
“It spurred an idea: ‘Why not bring the bee hoon into our own school?’ Then Ray started cooking in our hall pantry for friends, but eventually demand grew,” she adds.
That wasn’t technically the start of A Hot Hideout, but a brand called Raydy Beehoon.
It first operated out of a hall canteen at night, but eventually expanded into the food truck business, due to social distancing measures.
Heated up for a challenge
You may be wondering: How did they go from a bee hoon food truck to A Hot Hideout’s mala specialties, then?
Anran explains: “Everyone asks the same thing! Mala was one of our favourite dishes and we wanted to challenge ourselves with the most competitive cuisine, making something different that catered to local tastes.”
That’s not the full story though. Being young and fired-up entrepreneurs, the team was spurred on by a careless remark from an outsider — this is actually what helped ignite the fuse.
Ray was once on the school bus and overheard a conversation about Raydy Beehoon, where the person claimed that the brand was only successful because it was the only one in NTU serving supper.
Anran recalls: “He was very triggered and wanted to prove them wrong! That’s when he decided to venture into mala, since it was the most competitive cuisine.”
That’s when A Hot Hideout was born. They took over a defunct Thai restaurant unit within the school and used the existing infrastructure, such as fryers, painted the walls themselves and bought furniture from Carousell to save on expenses.
All these measures helped allay Anran’s fears — with lower costs, there was lower risk: “I have always been very risk-averse, while Ray is more adventurous and fearless, but he convinced me!”
From Java to mala
With their origin story all laid out, it bears mentioning that none of A Hot Hideout’s co-founders studied anything related to business or the culinary arts.
Both part of the same faculty in NTU, Ray’s major was in Computer Science and Anran’s was in data science. Zechary was a mechanical engineering major.
Most would say that tech is one of the more promising fields in the current job market and few Asian parents would condone their child giving that up to run a mala stall.
Anran was well aware of that harsh reality, so she hid her A Hot Hideout passion project from her parents, even at times when she was breaking down.
“I only told them two years after opening, because I knew they wouldn’t be supportive. Imagine how angry my mum would be if she knew I was washing dishes at 3am instead of studying,” she says, with a sheepish grin and nervous laughter.
She adds: “There were times I cried while washing dishes, because running two businesses was so draining and I didn’t have time for school. We had to hop onto the laptops during breaks to go for lectures.”
All in for A Hot Hideout
However, all those blood, sweat and tears eventually paid off as A Hot Hideout’s popularity reached sizzling heights.
The co-founders graduated and had plans to let the brand run on its own, with the help of managers.
Ray snagged a consultant role at the prestigious McKinsey, Anran headed to Australia for her masters and Zechary worked as Chief Operating Officer of a local startup.
But A Hot Hideout’s potential ultimately became clear when the brand’s third outlet at Paya Lebar’s Kinex — its first in a shopping mall — was besieged by hour-long queues.
They decided to leave their jobs to run the brand full-time in 2024, and now have their eyes set on expansion.
With just two outlets in its first two years, the co-founders have since built A Hot Hideout up to seven outlets, as of today.
Anran tells us there are plans for twelve outlets — five more — by the end of the year, as well as a relocation of A Hot Hideout’s Sembawang flagship outlet to a bigger space, and perhaps even a pathway towards overseas expansion.
On top of that, they will also be looking to venture into the retail space, leveraging their fanbase’s love of their soup base and fried goodies.
For anyone hoping to follow in her footsteps, Anran warns, jokingly: “Do not do F&B!”
On a more serious note, she notes that while F&B is very challenging, it can be very fun and encourages young entrepreneurs to try things, while youth is still on their side.
“Singaporean mala”
On what she thinks A Hot Hideout does differently to gain so much popularity, Anran says: “We actually call ourselves the Singapore kind of mala.”
The first thing is the soup. Instead of the traditionally oily, spicy and numbing soup found in mala and hotpot restaurants — which are meant to be dipped into, rather than drunk — they wanted to create something much more drinkable.
“Our collagen soup base is more like laksa. It’s less numbing and spicy, and made more creamy with milk,” she explains.
Another difference lies in the texture in the ingredients. For example, A Hot Hideout deep fries many of its ingredients, including potato, lotus roots, fish, and mantou.
Anran tells us these items are what gets their regulars hot and bothered: “Our most ordered items are our fried lotus root and potato, and on an outlet basis, we use up to 80kg of potatoes per day!”
“There’s even someone who walked in and asked to dabao 10kg of potatoes for a company event,” she says.
On top of those, another striking idiosyncracy of A Hot Hideout’s mala is the scrambled eggs that add a creamy element to their food.
What’s the inspiration behind these choices, though? It’s because they wanted to incorporate their favourite food into their restaurant.
As a huge potato chip lover, Anran wanted to find a way to have it as part of A Hot Hideout’s repertoire and, as for the scrambled eggs, they were inspired by a salad shop in NTU, which topped the salad bowls with creamy scrambled eggs.
A Hot Hideout taste test
How does the “Singaporean mala” work? We got an order of the mala collagen soup (S$2.50 base price, S$2.88/100g for ingredients) to taste the magic.
Anran suggested getting a double portion of A Hot Hideout’s beloved scrambled eggs (from S$1.50) for maximum enjoyment and we agree — the eggs were delightfully creamy and elevated the soup’s texture.
The soup’s flavour is also exactly as Anran promised: Comfortingly rich and with a splash of moderate spice, a bit like laksa or, to us, somewhat reminiscent of the nostalgic Maggi curry soup!
We had a smorgasbord of ingredients in our bowls, but the favourites were the usual suspects.
First, A Hot Hideout’s outrageously crunchy and thin potato chips and lotus root were so, so addictive.
But we also enjoyed the airy golden-brown mantou, which was great for dunking into the soup, or the mala xiang guo sauce to soak up the flavour.
Also, while the mala collagen soup is A Hot Hideout’s signature, the mala xiang guo (S$1.50 base price, S$2.88/100g for ingredients) was also pretty tasty.
It’s not too hot, but was plenty fragrant and packed with flavour — not to mention how mixing in the scrambled eggs with the noodles was just chef’s kiss.
Most of the other ingredients were just about what you’ll expect from any other mala joint but hey, the secret is in the soup (or sauce).
If you love scrambled eggs and mala, A Hot Hideout is exactly what you need. Comforting, drinkable malatang and crunchy fried goods is just the cherry on top.
Now we know why the person came in to order 10kg of fried potatoes.
This was a hosted tasting.
For more ideas on what to eat, read our stories on KFC’s cool new collab with Korean brand Samyang Buldak and the tastiest hawker grub you can find at Chinatown Complex.
A Hot Hideout is on the GrabFood delivery service and offers free delivery (up to S$3 off) with GrabUnlimited.
Enjoy up to 50% off when you dine with GrabFood Dine Out.
You can also book a ride to A Hot Hideout to try the Singapore style mala!
A Hot Hideout
Multiple stores islandwide.
Open: Operating hours vary across outlets
Multiple stores islandwide.
Open: Operating hours vary across outlets
Evan Mua
Author
Evan started off writing about food on Instagram, before joining outlets such as Buro and Confirm Good to pursue his passion. His best work usually comes after his first whisky shot in the morning.
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