SINGAPORE – Five years after losing her husband to cardiac arrest at age 48, Ms Lena Lee left a stable corporate career and invested more than $800,000 in Jiak 99 at the Singapore Flyer. Partly inspired by the way he used to express care through food, she started the 2,800 sq ft nostalgic hawker edutainment concept, a gap she saw in the Republic’s tourism landscape for more authentic, cultural and immersive food experiences.
The 42-year-old resigned from her role as assistant director of island investment with Sentosa Development Corp in January 2025 and began working actively on the project in July.
Jiak 99, which means to eat until you are full in Hokkien, opened in September with a 45-minute guided experience that introduces visitors to Singapore’s hawker culture through tasting sessions, exhibits and hands-on activities. Today, about 70 per cent of its visitors are foreigners. The rest are locals, including school groups.
Visitors walk through a street lined with replicas of old shophouse facades, where displays introduce classic dishes representing Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian food cultures. Interactive game stations test their knowledge of local kopi orders and different types of kueh.
The space also houses a 20-seat cafe called Jalan Makan, which serves local fare such as Nasi Lemak with Chicken Cutlet ($9.90) and Singapore Laksa ($11.80).
Throughout Ms Lee’s three-year marriage, food was the language of love.
Her late husband, Dr Jeremy Ng, was head of general surgery at Singapore General Hospital. His colleagues remember him for his patience, generosity and care for patients.
At home, he approached food with the same attentiveness. “Food was always a special way we connected,” says Ms Lee.
She remembers what struck her when they started dating in 2013: “The way he sliced the chicken meat off the wing with surgical precision.” From then on, she adds: “I never had to deshell or debone anything myself, he always took care of it.” They tied the knot in 2017.
The couple ate dinner together almost every night. “It was a conscious choice we made every day to have dinner together.” Their definition of success, she says, “wasn’t money, but fulfilment and happiness”.
Dr Ng collapsed after a jog at East Coast Park on July 4, 2020, at age 48. In the years that followed, grief came in waves.
“Grief feels a bit like a hangover that never quite goes away. It ebbs and flows like the tide.”
For a year, around the fourth of every month, she would visit their favourite bak chor mee stall – then in Seng Poh Road – and eat a bowl in his memory. It was the breakfast they had planned to share the morning he died. She would also visit the breakwater at East Coast Park, the last place they were together, and talk to him there. “I will never forget the final meals we shared that week or the last conversation we had on July 4.”
