The Story of Madam Lee Kim Choo

The Story of Madam Lee Kim Choo
Kim Choo Nonya Dumplings has been a mainstay in the Singapore’s diverse epicurean tapestry for over 60 years. Many covet its rich taste, disguised by the effervescent fragrance of pandan leaves so finely woven around the humble delicacy.

But more importantly is its ability to preserve the traditional, unyielding to the hands of time and untainted by the modern. A taste so rich with heritage, it unravels decades of hard work and perseverance personified by its founder Madam Lee Kim Choo.

Beginning of an Era
Her story traces back to a post-war Singapore in the late 1940s, Madam Lee was only 12 when she first learned the secret recipe to making traditional Nonya rice dumplings from her Peranakan grandmother. Selling their home-made delicacies every year during the Dragon Boat Festival.

Destiny Calling
Having married early in her youth, Madam Lee quickly settled down to being a mother to 4 young children. Burdened by financial difficulties and at her wits’ end, she was cajoled by friends to sell her home-made Nonya dumplings.

So with 5 kilos of rice everyday, she set up stall under a tree outside her zinc roof house in Everitt Road. At that time it was unheard of to sell rice dumplings outside the Dragon Boat Festival period. Nevertheless, demand for her dumplings grew and would eventually help see off her worst days.

True Humility Personified
Everyone who knew Mdm Lee remembered her as a compassionate woman who dedicated her life to ensuring the ones she loved got to live their lives to the fullest.

And even as years of toil caused her health to deteriorate, she would still religiously wake up every morning to feed stray cats before hopping on a trishaw to work.

A Life’s Work Left Untouched
Today, Kim Choo Nonya Dumplings has moved from a tent under a tree to an outlet along Joo Chiat Place and offers a splendid spread of local delicacies. Whether it’s their legendary sweet and savory dumplings, spicy chicken curry, delectable satay, fresh otak, delightful nonya kuehs or maybe just a simple cup of brewed coffee, everything here is made to home-cooked perfection.

Though Madam Lee has retired and her business passed on to her eldest Son (Wong Sin Min) and daughter-in-law (Helen Lim), nothing seems to change at Kim Choo; where traditional cooking is preserved to an art form. Her personality and integrity continues to live on in her well-kept secret recipe, unyielded by time and untainted by modernity.

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