This 23-year-old Lasalle graduate juggles a traditional Teochew kueh business and a full-time marketing job

Most 23-year-olds are slowly easing their way into the working world. But not Shiny Phua.

The Lasalle graduate helms a home-based business, which was birthed during the circuit breaker period last year. However, instead of selling the usual suspects like brownies and basque burnt cheesecakes, she specialises in traditional Teochew ang gu kueh (red tortoise cake) and muah chee (glutinous rice balls).

And that's not all — she juggles this side hustle alongside her full-time job, where she does sales and marketing for an engineering company.

One girl, many roles

Aptly named Ah Mah's Legacy after her late grandmother, the business is a one-woman show.

Everything is managed by Shiny alone — from manually making each individual kueh to all the nitty-gritty logistics on the backend.

"It's quite hard!" Shiny admits to AsiaOne when we asked if it's tough wearing so many hats.

To make this arrangement work, she told us that time management is important as she has to schedule orders such that they don't clash with her full-time job.

This means that the only available time for her to churn out orders is during the weekends. During the days leading up to the delivery date on Sundays, she also has to procure materials and prepare her ingredients, which can be time-consuming too.

Only about 200 pieces of kueh are pushed out for each weekly batch of orders, so interested parties have to be quick.

While Shiny's customers have encouraged her to scale up her business, she refuses to do so as she wants to stay true to her roots and craft every single piece of kueh by hand.

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The process isn't just tedious, it can also be costly, especially since Shiny insists on using natural ingredients with no food colouring or artificial flavourings.

For her peanut gu kueh ($10 for a box of four), she uses sweet potatoes to achieve its bright orange hue. And her limited edition pistachio tahini gu kueh ($14 for a box of four) is chock full of roasted pistachios and toasted white sesame tahini.

So its no surprise that her kuehs are on the pricier end of the spectrum because the skins are made from fresh sweet potato and glutinous rice flour instead of cheaper sweet potato flour.

Covid-19 hasn't helped with the situation either, as the prices for her ingredients have inflated, says Shiny.

"Sweet potato prices have increased about 28 to 33 per cent and for glutinous rice flour, nuts et cetera, there is at least a five to 10 per cent price increase," she shares.

And that's not all Shiny has to fret about. Manual labour aside, she also has to think about her customers' satisfaction too.

"The challenge was to manage people's expectations, especially because my [business] has only me," Shiny explains.

Remembering her grandma

Shiny first started making Teochew kueh when she was just 10 years old. Her late grandmother was the one who imparted these skills to her, she tells us.

For a while, before the circuit breaker hit last year, she even held kueh-making workshops.

When the pandemic put that to a halt, she decided to start selling her kueh instead and the rest is history.

Making traditional Teochew kueh isn't just a means of making some extra income — it also helps Shiny remember and stay connected with her beloved grandmother.

While Ah Mah's Legacy is currently entirely online-based, Shiny hopes to be able to eventually turn it into a brick and mortar store and hold workshops to share her grandma's expertise.

"[My grandma] stayed with me my whole life, thus making kueh makes me remember her and her teachings, as well as the time spent together with her."

melissateo@asiaone.com