S'porean teen, 17, opens porridge stall, also works 2nd job to afford stall rent

Kevin is 17, but he already has nearly half a decade of experience in the F&B sector.

So when his mom's friend was looking for a steely veteran to get into the hawker business with, who better than Kevin to take the helm.

In many ways, it was a dream come true for Kevin, who had wanted to be a hawker from an early (earlier) age.

He and his partner would split the cost 50-50, but since the partner already had a full-time job he couldn't get away from during the day, Kevin would be the one running the stall.

So on Nov. 10, Fu Ying Porridge opened its doors at Jurong West.

A day in Kevin's life

Here's what a typical day looks like for the teen.

4am: wake up (Yishun)

5am: reach the porridge stall (Jurong West)

5am to 7am: prepare ingredients for the day, including slicing up spring onions, frying up shallots and cooking the porridge.

Not to mention, all the preparatory work like cooking the broth and frying the pork lard the previous day.

Then it's a mad dash to 2pm when the stall closes, trying his best to sell as many bowls as he can.

Reviews

His porridge has attracted rave reviews in a relatively short time.

Kevin credits part of the taste to the fresh ingredients he uses. This is especially the case for his Sotong porridge, which, while not as popular as staples like sliced fish porridge, he says, is easier for older folks to eat, compared to the usual cuttlefish porridge.

And it's not just about the food either, with many praising the service as well.

This story being quite emblematic of him as a person.

Good food and service

Kevin credits his time at other F&B attachments for his great service.

And while that skill might have been picked up during his prior work, his porridge prowess is entirely self-taught (from the Internet).

Which doesn't mean that he's done learning. Something Kevin likes to do is to go around his stall area to ask customers for feedback.

And it's not always sunshine and lollipops either, with one auntie quite bluntly telling him she couldn't taste the difference between his porridge and a nearby competitor.

She suggested rock sugar to add a bit more oomph.

A more prideful person might have dismissed the suggestion, and an even more prideful person might have dismissed the person altogether.

Kevin, though, welcomed the feedback, and his porridge has been all the better for it.

In fact, there is some handy rock sugar in his workstation right now.

Of course, there will always be the issue with too many cooks, so Kevin is adamant on sticking with his very well-received recipe for now.

Kevin, who dropped out of school, says his family has been supportive of his endeavours, encouraging him to give it his all and not give up.

When he went half in on the stall with his partner, he mostly used his savings from his part-time jobs, but his parents chipped in as well.

Fresh ingredients, rave reviews, a good support system, and a driven young hawker helming the stall, Fu Ying Porridge appears to have all the ingredients (fresh) to make it big.

Which is why it's a bit jarring when Kevin tells us he and his partner are already making plans to close the shop in February 2026 if things don't pick up.

Tough

Fu Ying Porridge sells about S$150 worth of porridge a day, a good day. At his lowest, he sold less than S$100 worth of porridge.

That was when he strongly contemplated quitting, one of the many times he has done so during this tumultuous month.

The reviews are nice to get, and the smiles from his satisfied customers absolutely make his day.

But there just aren't enough customers.

He has a lot of returning customers, but that base is nowhere near enough to sustain the business.

Things got so bad that he even thought of cutting down or changing recipes to lower the cost, but he was so unsatisfied with the result that he offered to refund a loyal customer because he felt bad about it. That grand cost-saving experiment lasted a total of one day.

With rent, ingredients, and other miscellaneous costs, Kevin estimates he needs to sell about S$300 worth of porridge a day just to break even.

It's a tall task, but he's certainly trying. He's set up a TikTok account with the help of his social media team (one other person), an avenue he's the most hopeful about, and he's even taken to distributing flyers around the area, although he acknowledges it hasn't had as much of an impact as he wishes it did.

To supplement that monetary shortfall, Kevin is working a second job from 3pm to 9pm as well. He tells Mothership he wants to focus on Fu Ying completely, but it's just not feasible at the moment.

There are six coffeeshops around the area. In fact, at Block 498, where his stall is located, there are two coffeeshops.

It's a hyper-competitive landscape, and new upstarts, especially when the one cooking looks like a new new upstart, might not be given the chance or time to make things work.

Kevin talks adoringly of hawker culture. He lavishes praise on his far more senior stallmates and gushes about how helpful everyone has been.

But they are from a different time.

Kevin notes that the oldest stall in the coffeeshop, which he estimates to have been around for about 20 years, built up an incredibly loyal following through the decades.

In fact, he tells us about how one of the stall's longtime customers was recently reminiscing with the stall owner about the good old days.

The customer had been coming to the stall for 19 years, two years longer than I've been alive, he had quipped.

Now barely a month into his stall's existence, an existential dread hangs over Fu Ying's future.

The lifespan of a new stall may sometimes be more accurately measured in months, not years, let alone decades.

That is perhaps why Kevin is hesitant to give a prediction of what Fu Ying would look like five years from now.

"Too soon to say." He sheepishly admits when asked about the half-decade prediction.

It might be ephemeral, or it could be 19 years.

But what about the 17-year-old? What does he see himself doing in five years? Perhaps a bit too far off a question, that is, after all, more than a quarter of his life.

This time, he shows no hesitation.

"Still a hawker."

Fu Ying Porridge

Location: 498 Jurong West Street 41, Singapore 640498

Opening hours: 7am to 2pm (Closed on Thursdays)