Beyond salted egg: What local chips did Golden Duck develop but never put out?

CNA Lifestyle

Beyond salted egg: What local chips did Golden Duck develop but never put out?

The Singapore gourmet snack company has but launched a new mala snack, but because we're greedy Singaporeans, all we want to know is: What's next?

08 May 2022 06:30AM (Updated: x Jul 2022 03:23AM)

You might think of The Golden Duck'south founders, Jonathan Shen, 30, and Chris Hwang, 27, equally Willy Wonka types who spend their days and nights dreaming upwardly plans for how they can plough their favourite dishes into conveniently packaged snacks.

After all, The Gilt Duck isn't content to rest on their salted egg honour. Although it was their outset product, Salted Egg Yolk Murphy Crisps, that first launched them to stardom, their subsequent innovations, like Singapore Chilli Crab Seaweed Tempura, have given snackers even more reasons to indulge.

Their latest product, Sichuan Mala Hot Pot Fragrant Mix, proves that at that place's no holding them back.

READ: Mala addicts unite: Celebrating the pleasure and pain of fiery masochism

Built-in out of Hwang's obsession with mala dishes, the new snack comprises crispy fish skin, beancurd skin and a trio of harbinger, oyster and shiitake mushrooms, in a punchy mala spice blend featuring up to nineteen ingredients including Sichuan peppercorns, cumin, fennel, coriander and sesame seeds.

The Golden Duck's founders Chris Hwang (left) and Jonathan Shen. (Photo: The Golden Duck)

"I really believe that if you lot want to exercise a snack of this level you lot have to take information technology a notch further and you lot take to compare it to dishes," said Hwang.

"It has to be close to the dish, and it has to be better than whatever else is out at that place," Shen added.

READ: Dearest chilli? You might be a thrill-seeker – with a lower take chances of heart illness

Their mala snack spent nine months in development, with the team travelling to China for six months in search of authentic Sichuan flavours.

Superlative-SECRET LAB? SECRETS REVEALED

Evidently, there are no limits for the duo when information technology comes to pushing the boundaries of mod snacking.

But what we really wanted to know was: What flavours might take been left out in the cold on the smashing conveyor belt of R&D? What bold, daring experiments unfortunately did non make the cut?

The Golden Duck currently has five signature flavours. (Photo: The Golden Duck)

"Nosotros've canned a surimi based snack," Hwang said. "It's really old schoolhouse, correct? A real throwback. We tried to unroll the crab sticks and we tried to cut them up so fry them. Information technology's a actually interesting medium because you immediately recognise the white and red stripes. Just then when we fried it – perchance nosotros got the wrong batter – it had a crumbly feeling. It flaked and got stuck in your teeth. Then Jon said we couldn't do that ane." He laughed.

Another flavour that never saw the light of day was chicken rice. The problem, said Hwang, was that "Some people have black (roasted) chicken, some people have white craven. Some people take ginger, some people take no ginger. There are so many unlike varieties. When you lot endeavor and get an aggregated version of all of that, it does not work. So, one matter we realised is that we have to go later flavours that are unanimously agreed on. For instance, you can agree on what is a proficient chilli crab."

Then there are far-out flavours that were fated to remain fanciful ideas. "If y'all remember, final yr, there was this very funny comment that a MasterChef Britain judge made, most 'crispy rendang'," Hwang chuckled. "That blew up in everybody's faces. We got our designers, who are a very cheeky agglomeration, to design a Golden Duck Crispy Rendang pack. We put information technology upward (on social media) and everybody loved it. They said, 'Oh, y'all've got to practice it!'"

Speaking of social media, "If you just lookout man my Instagram, you lot'll probably find out what's happening on Gilded Duck's dorsum finish," quipped Hwang, as many of the foods he enjoys serve as inspiration for R&D work. It's a chore chance, subsequently all.

"Whatsoever we consume nowadays, at some point the question will come in: 'Can I turn this into a snack?'" said Shen. "Information technology's most agreement man cravings."

"And when you go that craving at 2am for wanton noodles or whatever – if I can turn that into a snack, bam, I've got your stomach," Hwang said.

In an attempt to sniff our way to discovering what their next snack might be, we asked them: What was the last craving they each had?

"Pizza. Last night. Four cheese," Hwang answered immediately. "If in that location's a little bit of bluish cheese on it – honey it."

"I'm a scrap more than basic. I'm quite craving-neutral," Shen said. "I would eat if you put expert nutrient in front of me but I wouldn't queue up for 45 minutes for it." That said, "Recently, I've been pigging out a little fleck at Ghim Moh Market. Chwee kueh, carrot cake, duck rice, nasi lemak. I experience it'southward one of those food havens that have been somewhat untouched by modernisation."

We remember we would put money downward for a chwee kueh bit if it were to hitting the shelves – but The Gold Duck's adjacent snack, every bit our sleuthing led us to believe, is more likely to be laksa.

"Nosotros've worked on laksa and our laksa is good," Shen offered in a non-committal manner. However, "We won't launch something that doesn't have legs to take off. We have this actually good laksa on an interesting medium that's sitting in our kitchens. We have to decide whether it'due south even so going to exist a skilful season to launch. I recollect a lot of people have come into the market to practice laksa likewise, and nosotros have to probably inquire and heed to the community."

HACKS, SNACKS AND Aureate DUCK QUACKS

You might non know this unless you're a next-level snacker, just there are The Gilt Duck snack hacks that exist.

If you accept a pack of Salted Egg Crab Seaweed Tempura or Singapore Chilli Crab Seaweed Tempura and put it in the toaster for about 30 to 45 seconds, "everything just melts a little bit and so that when you lot crunch into it, the texture is like softshell crab," Shen revealed.

The Golden Duck founders Chris Hwang and Jonathan Shen turn their 2am cravings into products. (Photo: The Golden Duck)

You can also use the flavor-loaded crumbs and salty bits at the bottom of the pack in your dishes and meals, he added, maxim that fans have been known to pour them onto porridge or employ them to coat chicken before grilling information technology. "We saw the community taking our stuff and cooking information technology with pastas, burgers – whatever," he said.

You lot're simply limited by your inventiveness – and that'due south the kind of approach that'south gotten Hwang and Shen onto Forbes' 30 Nether xxx list.

And when it comes to flavours, there's so much uncharted territory.

"In our neighbouring countries, as far away as India, Cathay and Thailand, I think there's so much room to be explored," Shen said.

"The zesty flavours – Thai, lemongrass, lime, ginger – stuff that really give an interesting boot to your snacks. That's one area that'southward actually non been explored, fifty-fifty past the Western brands," Hwang said. "I think we can do something really amazing here with Asian flavours."

Beyond salted egg: What local chips did Golden Duck develop but never put out?

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