A new tze char place, Famous JB 101 Firewokz has recently opened for business at WCEGA Tower along Bukit Batok Crescent. I was invited for a food tasting session last week and so I headed to the West to check it out.

I was immediately impressed by the flavoursome sauce with crab infused stock and the kway teow (hor fun). Finding a good hor fun is not easy in Singapore. I am told that the rice ribbon noodles were brought in from Ipoh on Chef Lim’s insistence. The savoury sweet flavour of the sauce is the same as that which I grew up with and something quite rare in Singapore nowadays.

Zi char restaurants in industrial areas aren’t that uncommon, but what sets Famous JB 101 Firewokz apart is its origin story. Founder Joanne Lau was actually a surgical nurse before deciding to go into F&B. With her husband, she set up a Kay Lee Roast Meat franchise stall at WCEGA Tower in 2016. To attract the crowds, they also started a zi char stall next door. Although Kay Lee eventually shuttered, the zi char stall proved to have greater staying power and today, it’s basically its own coffee shop in the middle of an industrial courtyard.