Meat & Rice: Spontaneous drinking sessions and late-night experiments birthed these delicious pork and duck bowls

Sometimes the best ideas are simple and come about spontaneously. First-time hawkers Xavier Lim and Ong Weijie, both 29, came up with the idea for their food business over an impromptu drinking session back in November last year.

Fast forward to August and the young hawkers have opened their very first stall at ABC Brickworks Market & Food Centre — Meat & Rice. 

Looking to keep things simple, the stall is true to its namesake — with a focus on meat and rice. On the menu are two signature items: Duckpeng (duck with rice, S$7) and Kongbapeng (pork with rice, S$6.50).

How it all came about

Xavier and Weijie have known each other since secondary school and reconnected after National Service. Since then, the pair have met up every year during gatherings such as Chinese New Year and Christmas, or on an impromptu basis. 

In November last year, they’d a spontaneous drinking session under Weijie’s HDB block and started talking about what they wanted to do with their careers. 

Having graduated from At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy with a diploma in the culinary arts, Weijie has 10 years of experience as a chef at restaurants such as Iruden and Birds of a Feather. He’d been mulling over starting his own hawker business for some time and brought up the idea. 

As for Xavier, he had been taking up various jobs after being released from prison on drug charges. He too, wanted to start something new and was enthusiastic about pairing up with Weijie. 

Xavier noted that these experiences made him more prepared to start his own business: “I was in prison for about a year and it helped train my mental resilience and become a more patient man, thus better able to overcome stress and pressure.”

“When I got out of prison, working as a delivery rider helped me understand how to preserve food better, and being a loan broker taught me how to communicate and negotiate when necessary. I think these are some of the soft skills that can only be learned through experience and helped prepare me for starting Meat & Rice,” he adds. 

 “We felt that we should just go ahead and start a business instead of waiting,” adds Weijie. “If I hesitated any longer, I would become older and might have a lot more responsibilities, which would make it harder to commit to this business.” 

Xavier adds: “Maybe we were under the influence of alcohol, or it was just pure impulse, but we went up to my place the next day and started researching and developing recipes.”

Setting up Meat & Rice at ABC Brickworks

The concept of a single bowl with different proteins is Weijie’s brainchild. 

He says: “I don’t see many hawker stalls doing this in Singapore and I realise people at hawker centres want their food fast, without having to queue too long. So having everything in a single bowl is a good idea.” 

The duo then started experimenting with different meats. They soon settled on focusing on pork and duck, since they found these the best-tasting out of the lot. 

Xavier’s father, who’d worked as a chef when he was younger, contributed significantly, too. In fact, the sauce they now use to braise their meats employs a recipe of his.

“One night, Weijie and I were experimenting with the recipe at 2 am. My dad woke up because he smelled the sauce’s fragrance,” recalls Xavier. “He had a taste and told us that it wasn’t pungent enough, so he taught us to add a few more ingredients. We immediately drove to the nearest supermarket, bought the ingredients and added them to the sauce.”

And thus, Meat & Rice’s secret braising sauce was born.

After finalising their recipe, the pair decided on their signatures Duckpeng and Kongbapeng. To test the waters, the pair started with a home-based business via Instagram, with two friends helping to design their brand logo and taking pictures for the menu. 

Next, they began promoting and selling their food to family and friends. 

Transitioning to a physical stall

From November 2023 to April this year, word continued to spread and the pair began to receive more and more orders.

Although demand was picking up, the pair had their eyes set on their end-goal: A physical hawker stall. Once an opportunity opened up at ABC Brickworks hawker centre in Bukit Merah, the duo went for it and opened on August 10.

“The transition wasn’t an easy thing. Back at home, we had the luxury of time and we could plan ahead since most of our orders were pre-orders. So, we knew how much to buy and prepare,” says Xavier. “However, at the stall, we have to guess and predict the volume of orders for each day.”

When they first started out, they ended up throwing away a lot of ingredients because of overpreparation. A month in, the duo now have a better idea of their daily traffic and have adjusted how much food is made each day.

The duo is now much better equipped and are able to expedite their cooking process and improve workflows.

“Back at home, the food preparation took around 16 hours, as the pork needed to soak up the marinade and braise overnight,” Xavier says. “Then we’d leave the meat in the pot to soak up all the juices and the fragrance from the sauce before it could be served.” 

Now, Meat & Rice uses a pressure cooker for the pork, thereby halving cooking times.

The pork is prepared in the evening before the duo return home and left to rest. The next day, it’s ready to be shredded and served. 

As for the duck, it is marinated the night before and sous vide-ed in the morning for half an hour before it is charred, sliced and served.  

Meat & Rice’s menu

Of course, we couldn’t resist trying both the Duckpeng and Kongbapeng. Both bowls include a sous-vide egg, fried wanton skin, salted vegetables, tau kwa, and mushrooms. 

Meat & Rice’s recipes are always a work in progress. 

Fried wanton skin was added following feedback from customers that the dish needed more body, whilst tau kwa and mushrooms help balance the dish’s heaviness (from the strong flavour of the sauce and braised meat). The addition of salted vegetables also helps cut through the fattiness of the meat, notes Weijie.

We were thoroughly impressed with the Kongbapeng. For one, the pork jowl was extremely tender, flavourful and well-braised. 

Xavier and Weijie also add that they’ve recently switched from pork belly to pork jowl, as they realised the belly meat tends to toughen after being left out for too long.

The sauce was another highlight for me. It was well-balanced and savoury, and paired well with the short-grain rice used. 

The duck was very well-executed too, being equally tender and tasty. We mixed in the gooey sous-vide egg well with the rice, meat and sauce — all in all, a winning combination. 

After receiving requests for more variety, Xavier and Weijie have also added chicken leg rice (S$6.50) and pig trotters rice (S$6.50) to the menu. 

Running the business

Of course, running their business is not without its challenges. Whilst the duo have managed to attract repeat customers, business is still unpredictable. 

“There are some days when business is really bad, to the point where I feel things might not go well in the long run,” Xavier says, candidly. 

He’d even posted a video on TikTok asking for advice from other food stall owners. 

“They told me not to look at sales on a day-to-day basis, but rather on a weekly or even monthly basis,” he said. “Take the average and that will be your benchmark for the month. It’s more reassuring and less stressful to do that.” 

Being in a partnership is another challenge for the duo, given that it’s their first time starting a business together. Whilst they have no hesitations or regrets about the collaboration, they admit that they do have disagreements every day — from small issues to bigger ones. 

“We always tell ourselves not to hold grudges. Everything we quarrel about has to be for the business itself and not because of our own egos,” says Xavier. “By the end of the day, we make peace. And if the other party makes sense, we have to accept that and make compromises to move forward.”  

As for future plans, the pair hopes to open up more outlets eventually. They are also open to opening up at shopping malls, or even having a restaurant of our own if the opportunity arises.  

“But for now, we are taking it step by step and focusing on the present,” says Xavier.  

Want to read more about young hawkers? Check out Organics and Style Palate.

Meat & Rice is on the GrabFood delivery service and offers free delivery (up to S$3 off with GrabUnlimited).

Do explore the GrabFood Dine Out service for awesome deals.

You can also book a ride to try these delicious bowls at Meat & Rice at ABC Brickworks.