TacoCat's TrEats #56: Spilling the Beans on a Family Food Feud

Hey Hive!

This week's contests were tough choices for me, since I don't really have anything else in the way of coffee, and the only times I eat buffets are breakfast buffets in hotels. So I guess we're stuck with Best Breakfast!

But it's okay, because man I just read about the history of this place I'm about to share and it is actually very intriguing (if you're a fan of family drama/soap operas that is). I think the kids will say I'm bout to spill the tea, or spill the beans that is (heh you'll get that in a second).

Anyway, the place I want to share today is called Rochor Original Beancurd, one of a few famous soy beancurd stalls in Singapore!

So before we get into the drama, I guess I should first explain for those who are not familiar, what is soy beancurd?

In simple terms, I'd call it soy milk pudding. It's made from soy beans that have been soaked, strained, blended and boiled (with 2 coagulants called Gypsum and Lactone and soy milk thrown in), and the result is a bowl of silky smooth beancurd!

Source: Daniel's Food Diary

Soy beancurd, aka Tau Huay (in Hokkien) or Dou hua (豆花) is a very common dessert or breakfast dish in China and Southeast Asia.

Of course, every region likes it slightly different, so the taste of this simple pudding can differ a lot across borders. For example, in northern China, dou hua is often eaten with soy sauce, while in Hong Kong it's served with sweet ginger and sometimes mixed with black sesame paste or coconut milk. In Southeast asia, it's commonly served with sweet syrup (typically palm sugar flavoured with pandan), and can be either hot or cold.

Nowadays there are a lot of fancy flavours of tau huay, with a whole myriad of toppings, but I'd say this is a pretty traditional breakfast in Singapore: a bowl of tau huay, soy bean milk and a you tiao (fried dough fritter)

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Source: burpple

Anyway, Rochor Original Beancurd was just a short walk from our place so we went down to get a taste (for dessert of course, not breakfast, because we're both night owls).
The interior of the shop is pretty simple, with just a few stainless steel tables and plastic chairs outside. I guess most customers would just order to-go.

They have a pretty simple menu, reminiscent from the time the store opened in 1960!
Other than beancurd pudding and drinks, they also have various baked/fried pastries.

We were kinda full from our dinner so we just ordered the standard beancurd pudding and soy milk.

Tbh the pudding was a little sweeter than I would've liked, but the texture was really smooth. The soy milk was good though, and definitely fresh. I can definitely see why the shop is popular.

Now it's time to spill the tea on the family drama! I think this is pretty much old news for Singaporean foodies at this point, but I literally just found out about all this today.

You can read the full saga here, but I'll try to summarise it as best as I can.

Basically, it all started in 1955 when a couple (Mr Xu Jun Jie and his wife Madam Tan Jin Jiao) would sell tau huay from a small makeshift stall at the intersection between Beach Road and Rochor Road. The eldest son, Koh, helped his parents sell tau huay since he was 12. Together, they refined and improved the recipe over the years and after his father's passing in 1986, mother and son sold tau huay in shop units in Selegie Road and Middle Road in the early 1990s.

Source: vulcanpost

The second son, William Koh, joined the business in 1991, and they opened their first store at Short Street between the mid to late ’90s. The youngest son, David, joined the business soon after, learning from his eldest brother.

But in 2006, trouble started brewing when the oldest and youngest son were not given shares in the family business (only given monthly salaries). The mother only split the shares with the second son because she "favoured" him and his wife, with whom she was staying. And when the mother suffered from a partial stroke in 2003, she gave her shares to the second son's wife.

The second son, William, told David (the youngest) that he could have some shares only after William retires, challenging him to open a store next to him. Which was ironic, because the eldest and youngest sons then left the family business to start their own.

Source: Rochor Original Beancurd Facebook

The only sister in the family was helping the youngest son at his business (Beancurd City) until she then went on to start her own beancurd business as well.
Now all the siblings' enterprises have been passed down to their children, who have been running them since.

Anyway, now there are 4 businesses all split from Rochor Original Beancurd (the one we went to), and it's a shame too. I think if they just combined and expanded they could rival even Mr Bean (a beancurd chain in Singapore founded in 1995)!

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Source: burpple