S'pore siblings leave 5-figure jobs, decide to sell curry rice & 'revive' parents' cai png stall

In 2024, a brother and sister found themselves both leaving their corporate jobs months after each other and decided to start a curry rice business together.

Tay Jia Ling, 36, had been doing product management at a fashion company for 12 years, while her brother Tay Jia Han, 38, had managed restaurants in the United Kingdom, Shin Min Daily News reported.

Both were making five-figure salaries.

Before he returned to Singapore, Jia Han messaged his sister, wondering if they could revive their parents' 19-year hawker business.

The idea gradually grew into Curry Kong, which they launched from home in May 2025. Since then, it has gained a solid following and hit a 50 to 60 per cent customer retention rate.

A family legacy

The siblings saw Curry Kong as their way of continuing their family legacy.

For 19 years, their parents ran a cai png stall at Block 280 Tampines Street 22, serving 30 dishes every day, according to a video on the Curry Kong Instagram page.

The siblings would help out often when they were young, they told Shin Min.

When their parents closed the stall in 2014, many customers got emotional, and some even shed tears.

"I had no idea we meant so much to our customers," the Tays' mother said in the video.

When Curry Kong launched, customers who had patronised the family stall back then showed their support.

A new challenge

In another Instagram video, Jia Ling shared why she decided to take a break from the corporate world and dive into a home-based food business.

Although she enjoyed life in her corporate career, "it felt like a constant chase for the next high", and she felt that "something deeper was missing".

She wanted to challenge herself in something new, and soon saw Curry Kong as her new mission.

More than just food, it "felt like a bigger mission to preserve our local flavours", Jia Ling said.

The siblings told Shin Min that they wanted to stick to what they were familiar with.

In terms of both taste and technique, their parents were able to offer some assistance. The siblings also drew on their expertise from their corporate jobs to grow and market the brand.

Putting a modern spin on their parents' cai png recipes, Jia Ling and Jia Han put together a menu of seven curry rice dishes, with the meat options ranging from chicken to braised pork belly and sambal sotong.

Investing S$100,000 for a physical space

Now that the business was growing steadily, the siblings had plans to expand Curry Kong out of their home and into a physical store, Shin Min reported.

Since around December 2025, they started looking for a space and accumulated about S$100,000 from their savings and profits to invest in this next chapter.

As about 70 per cent of their customers came from the east of Singapore, the siblings decided on a space in Plaza 8 @ Changi Business Park, where they plan to welcome customers in July.

It was not easy for them to save up this S$100,000.

In the initial stages of the business, the siblings did not take a salary for an entire year, they told Shin Min.

Jia Ling shared that revenue was not very stable at the time, and to help with daily expenses, they became private-hire car drivers and made rides at the peak hour of 7am every morning.

In the Instagram video, Jia Ling admitted that running a food business is not easy, but she was pushing through.

"I don’t know where this will lead me, but for the first time in a long while, this feels right."