Сингапурский дизайнер Патрик Тэй открыл десертную лавку в Чинтаууне после 30 лет жизни в Пекине

After 30 years in Beijing, S’porean interior designer Patrick Tay turns dessert hawker in Chinatown - Patrick Tay, a Singaporean interior designer who lived in Beijing for almost 30 years, returned to Singapore and opened a dessert stall called Tuan Tuan Yuan Yuan in Chinatown Complex in 2026. - He applies his design skills and passion for quality to create unique desserts like Cheng Tng and Mango Sago, sourcing ingredients personally and refining recipes with his wife. - A viral video by his daughter brought sudden popularity to the stall, leading to long queues and renewed community connections, while Tay balances hawker life with his artistic pursuits and family support. AI generated SINGAPORE – For almost 30 years, Patrick Tay made a living designing spaces in Beijing. Now, the 60-year-old spends his days working in one measuring just 2.6m by 3.35m. At Tuan Tuan Yuan Yuan dessert stall in Chinatown Complex, the former interior designer starts work at about 9.30am, preparing his signature Cheng Tng ($3). The dessert contains nine ingredients, including dried persimmon, winter melon and pang da hai, or malva nut – which takes about four hours to soak and pick through. “I am a foodie. I believe if I want to cook something, it has to be the best version I can produce,” says Tay, who opened the stall in February 2026. He has six items on the menu. His pursuit of quality extends to the mangoes for his Mango Sago ($4.50). Instead of relying on a fruit supplier, he scouts markets and fruit stalls around Singapore for suitable ones. Tay, who usually travels by public transport, has even rented cars from car-sharing platforms to head to The Bedok Marketplace, which opens till late at night, in search of the right fruit. His attention to detail was honed through decades of training and work as an interior designer. He attended River Valley High School and graduated from the now-defunct Baharuddin Vocational Institute, Singapore’s first formal design school, with a diploma in interior design in 1986. He later co-founded Singapore interior design firm Embryo Design and became its design director. A hotel project took him to Beijing in late 1992. Drawn by the opportunities there, he stayed. He met fellow Singaporean Regina Ong, now 60, at a gathering for Singaporeans in Beijing in 1994. They married in 1997 and have two daughters, Nichole, 28, and Justine, 25. Nichole, who previously ran an education centre, recently launched her own start-up centred on a storytelling mobile application called Phases, while Justine is a treasurer in the finance industry. Beijing was the family’s second home. There, Tay ran his own interior design firm and also dabbled in food and beverage out of interest. He opened a pub called Emergency Room in 2002 and ran it for a year. In 2007, he opened dessert stall Sweet Talk, which his wife operated for about a year. Unexpected homecoming The family’s return to Singapore was not planned. They came back to celebrate Chinese New Year with relatives here in 2020, as they did every year, with just two weeks’ worth of clothes in their suitcases. When reports of an infectious virus emerged, they mistakenly thought the lockdowns would be temporary. Tay returned to China for work, while his wife and daughters extended their stay in Singapore. But when they tried to return to Beijing, flights were suspended and their existing visas were not accepted. Repeated attempts to obtain new visas were unsuccessful. Their belongings, two dogs and decades-long friendships remained in Beijing. Tay, meanwhile, travelled within China for work and did not see his family in person for the next 1½ years as his wife and two daughters were not able to obtain visas to return to Beijing. Daily video calls lasting from 10 to 30 minutes helped him cope with life alone. “Knowing that they were safe and living well was comforting to me,” he says. In mid-2021, his wife and daughters moved back into the family’s five-room Housing Board flat in Pasir Ris, which had been rented out. With the interior design market in China becoming increasingly challenging, Tay, the family’s sole breadwinner, decided that staying apart was no longer worthwhile and he returned to Singapore. “Family takes priority above all else,” he says. But homecoming was not easy. “At the beginning, I felt very lost,” he says. “I had spent almost 30 years building my life in Beijing.” He continued taking on freelance design projects, but was contemplating retirement by 2022. Sitting idle did not suit him, however. He sketched in his free time and began thinking about returning to his other passion – food. Having previously ventured into F&B, he knew the risks. “If I open a cafe, I have to burn through a lot of money paying for rental and labour,” he says. “A hawker stall is most sensible.” Desserts with a designer’s eye He successfully bid for the Chinatown Complex unit in November 2025 and spent about three months testing recipes before opening Tuan Tuan Yuan Yuan with a judicious investment of $12,000. He has equipment including a Thermomix for making his yam paste dessert Orh Nee ($2.50), as well as an ice machine that produces ice fine enough for bingsu. The stall’s name means reunion, a nod to Tay’s homecoming and devotion to his family. Its signboard and logo, designed by him with input from his family, feature four round jelly balls in a bowl, representing him, his wife and their daughters. Many of the recipes originated with his wife, but Tay has put his own stamp on them. His Cheng Tng is based on the version the family sold in Beijing. He dislikes overly sweet, factory-prepared versions and uses golden-hued Thai dried longans instead of the darker variety, which he says turns soggy. He prepares most of the ingredients from scratch, cooking the ginkgo nuts in pandan syrup, and uses palm sugar instead of white sugar for a more aromatic finish. His wife, who works as a finance secretary, remains his toughest critic. “I have a quality control inspector,” he jokes. “She will scream at me if I am not cooking her recipes the right way and up to her standard.” The couple also spent three months refining the recipe for Yuzu Honey Ice ($3.50), a refreshing dessert made with Korean yuzu honey and housemade, tang yuan-sized yuzu jelly balls conceived by Tay. “I am a designer. I am always looking at aesthetics,” he says, adding that taste and appearance are equally important. His design background came in handy when planning the workflow in the tight 8.7 sq m space. But nothing prepared him for the physical demands of hawker life. Despite having two fans in the stall, he still perspires in the heat. During the first few weeks, his legs hurt from standing for long hours, but he has since got used to it. The stall gradually built up a pool of regulars, mostly seniors living nearby. Then, almost overnight, Tay found himself dealing with queues. Nichole had filmed her father to help market his stall and add to the portfolio of her storytelling mobile app Phases. The video, posted on July 7, garnered 453,000 views, 17,400 likes and 6,385 shares. The effect was immediate. The next day, 20 customers were waiting even before the stall opened. The queues grew in the days that followed, bringing younger customers in their 20s and 30s. Some placed bulk orders for as many as 25 bowls. Tay doubled production and worked until close to midnight on little sleep. He also felt bad when customers made the trip only to find that the desserts had sold out. The video brought other reunions too. Former schoolmates and friends with whom he had lost touch recognised him and visited the stall to show their support. Tay, who prefers to keep a low profile, expects the frenzy to settle eventually. For now, his family is helping while he considers hiring a stall assistant. Nichole handles the cashier and orders while running her own start-up, and his wife helps out on Saturdays. The stall is closed on Sundays and Mondays. Sundays are for quality time with the family, while Tay uses Mondays to buy ingredients and do prep work for the week ahead. Despite the long hours, he has no regrets about becoming a hawker. “I am happiest now because I feel even more connected with my family, with them helping me,” he says. Tay and Nichole have also collaborated on their own art project, Hawker Stories Of Singapore, a series of postcards featuring his hand-drawn illustrations of his stall and other hawker businesses. On the back are short descriptions penned by Nichole of local hawker dishes and their origins. Each drawing took Tay up to three hours to complete. The postcards, which cost $3.50 each or $28 for a set of nine, are sold at his stall. “Seeing my artwork printed out gives me satisfaction,” he says. “I am a hawker now, but I am still a designer and artist at heart.” Tuan Tuan Yuan Yuan Where: 02-036 Chinatown Complex, 335 Smith Street Open: uesdays to Fridays, noon to 5pm. Closed on Sundays and Mondays Tel: 9897-7944 Info: @ttyy.dessert (Instagram)