One of the most enduring childhood memories that Shreen Ho, her brother Andrew and their cousin Kent Ho have is the act of peeling and washing pail after pail of fresh Venus clams.
Shreen’s mother, Cindy Chai is the founder of the Lai Fong Lala Noodles stall.
Today, it has branches at Jalan Sultan near Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur; Damansara Uptown in Petaling Jaya and Jalan Permai in Genting Highlands.
Chai initially served soft clams cooked in superior stock with ginger and rice wine.
One customer liked it so much that he suggested adding noodles to the dish. Chai took the suggestion and it became her signature dish.
What has endeared diners to her noodles over the years is its broth – a hearty and flavourful stock of chicken – and Venus clams.
Each bowl is piled high with the shellfish.
“Most people would just soak the bivalves in water to purge the sand and mud.
“My mother insisted that we peeled them, opened them one by one to be washed individually so that there will be no traces of grit,” said Shreen.
“We’d come to my mother’s stall after school and during the holidays to help.
“I think we peeled an average of two to five pails a day, depending on what time we came back from school.
“All the workers saw us grow up,” said Shreen, now 26.
Today, Chai mostly works from home, handling accounts and inventory.
She and her husband Kenny Ho make major decisions such as planning and deciding on new branch openings.
Kenny designs the layouts and construction of the new outlets, in addition to overseeing marketing and branding.
His brothers-in-law run the Lai Foong Restaurant plus the beef noodle stall there.
Shreen is in charge of the business’ administrative affairs and social media marketing.
Helming the stoves are Kent, 28, and Andrew, 23, who has been cooking since he was 17.
“We came into our parents’ business when they opened their Jalan Sultan branch in 2021,” said Shreen.
“The opening date was very auspicious, as it was on National Day.
“But this was when we were still under the movement-control order and my parents needed our help with social media marketing.
“They also put us in charge of registering the business with the Companies Commission, handling the workers’ permits and applying for business licences,” she said.
She remembers when her parents decided to expand the business seven years ago.
“A shoplot owner had offered to rent his place to my parents.
“They were very excited at the prospect of expanding their business, so they took up the offer.
“At that time, we had yet to have a proper system in place. This resulted in long waiting times for our customers.”
But under the guidance of her parents and relatives, they learned how to manage the business.
“Though it was during the MCO, we earned enough revenue to pay our overheads and monthly rental.
“There were also long queues when dine-ins were allowed,” said Shreen.
The Jalan Sultan outlet received the Michelin Bib Gourmand Award in 2023 and has since remained on the list.
“Being recognised by Michelin was a huge achievement for our family.
“We didn’t specifically set out with the goal of winning a Michelin award.
“We were mainly focused on serving good food consistently and taking care of our customers.
“I believe it was the combination of our food quality, consistency, value and the support we received from our family, staff and customers that helped us reach this point.
“Of course, being recognised by Michelin is something we are very grateful and proud of, especially because the business started from a stall,” said Shreen.
“We hope to continue introducing new dishes while keeping our signature lala noodles at the heart of the business.”
