My Must Eats… with ShopBack co-founder Lai Shanru
My Must-Eats is a HungryGoWhere series featuring Singapore’s public figures and their favourite food haunts. This week, we speak to Lai Shanru, co-founder of Shopback.
Every Singaporean loves a good deal. And that’s something Lai Shanru, co-founder of ShopBack, recognised early.
Back then, the idea of getting cashback with multiple brands was still a fairly new concept.
Today, the brand serves more than 35 million users across 10 markets, including Singapore and Australia. There aren’t many who don’t know about it.
The 35-year-old is a bona fide girl boss. At the young age of 26, she joined forces with her other co-founders to start ShopBack.
Armed with just three years of working experience, including online fashion retailer Zalora, it was an undeniably daunting task for anyone. But Lai took it in stride and learnt quickly from the get-go.
In 2018, the Singapore Management University graduate was featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30: Big Money list for the Asian region, and a year later, she was featured in Prestige’s 40 under 40 list.
Another fact about Lai – she’s a certified foodie obsessed with hawker eats, just like the rest of us.
HungryGoWhere sits down with her as she dishes out some of her favourite meals.
Pro tip: Some of these stalls can even earn you some cashback with ShopBack Go!
1. What dish reminds you of your childhood — and where did you get it?
Mostly Asian food such as porridge, zi char or hawker favourites such as chicken rice, hokkien mee, chai tow kway (carrot cake).
Growing up, my favourite place for porridge and zi char with my family was Springleaf Taiwan Porridge. We used to go there often for family meals.
I liked it so much that one year I even asked to have my birthday celebration meal there, when typically we would go to “fancier” restaurants for such special occasions. It was a decision that was much to my siblings’ dismay, as they were looking forward to a rare meal out at a more expensive restaurant!
2. What’s your go-to eatery in Singapore? Why?
Hawker centres such as the Beo Crescent Food Centre (in in Bukit Ho Swee). I love the variety of food I can find there, and it’s not only delicious but also affordable. My favourites from there are the fish soup, herbal bak kut teh, claypot rice and ban mian, just to name a few.
Ah Mei Handmade Noodles is one of my favourites — it has great ban mian. I particularly love its mee hoon kuey (hand-pulled noodles). The stall owner is generous with ingredients and the soup is so heartwarming. I also like Cantonese Claypot Rice from the same food centre. It has tasty claypot rice and is super affordable, too. Plus it has soups and other dishes.
3. When you travel, what’s one Singapore dish you always miss?
Hokkien mee! I like most Hokkien mee options as long as they’re tasty. Golden Mile Food Centre and Chomp Chomp have pretty good ones that are “prawn-y” (really umami, thanks to the rich prawn stock) with good chilli! Chilli makes a big difference.
Actually, I miss hawker food in general when I travel. You don’t usually get to experience such tasty and diverse types of food under the same roof like you do at our Singapore hawker centres.
4. What dish or cuisine do you want to try, but have not?
Perhaps authentic kimbap in Korea! I’ve only tried kimbap once in Singapore and would like to try traditional ones in Korea. I absolutely love Korean food.
I liked Dae.baps at Oxley Tower, but unfortunately it seems to have closed down. I love Korean BBQ, stews, soups, pancakes, rice balls, jjamppong (spicy seafood noodle soup), bossam (boiled pork wraps)… the list goes on.
My go-to eateries are Kimildo Korean BBQ at Tras Street, Wang Dae Bak, Masizzim (a Korean stew specialist), Yogiyo at Beauty World Centre, Anju (for elevated Korean food), and The Butcher’s Dining at Havelock Road (for great quality meats for home barbecues!).
5. What’s the last thing you ate that impressed you — and where did you have it?
Can I say my husband’s cooking? I was just telling him how much I missed brunch food one weekend, so he whipped up some french toast and tartine and it was so good! I tend to find the usual brunch food outside quite underwhelming. I’m very blessed that I married such a good chef!
Otherwise, my recent trip to Ashino, an omakase restaurant at Chijmes, was amazing. I’m usually not an omakase fan in Singapore, but went there to celebrate my husband’s birthday. The food was really really good. The assortment of sashimi was very tasty and the rice was exceptionally flavourful, too.
Phyllis Leong contributed to this article.
For more ideas on what to eat, read our stories on exciting Jurong East food places and surprisingly healthy hawker food in Singapore.
Wang Dae Bak, Masizzim, Yogiyo and Anju are on the GrabFood delivery service and offer free delivery (up to S$3 off) with GrabUnlimited. They can also be found on GrabFood Dine-in.
Alternatively, book a ride to these eateries.
Gaelmaine Hoong
Author
Gael comes from a family of picky eaters and she also likes to talk a lot. So, writing about food seems like a reasonable pastime for her.
Read More
