Fun noodles attract oodles of fans
Mum’s idea to incorporate vege into dish a hit with daughter and other mothers
KOTA KINABALU: Parents often turn to dietary supplements when their children refuse to eat certain types of food – especially vegetables – to give them the nutrition needed for growth.
There are also some who simply give up persuading their toddlers to eat their greens, and wait until they are older before trying again.
However, 31-year-old housewife-turned-entrepreneur Eva Tan was not about to give up when her then two-year-old daughter Elisha Nge refused to eat any vegetable at all.
After thinking about it for a couple of months, she came up with the idea of incorporating greens into homemade noodles.
“Since my husband’s family are noodle makers, I asked if he could help me make vegetable-based noodles for Elisha,” she said.
Tan said her husband Kenny was sceptical but made a batch anyway.
Much to her delight, the “fun noodles” as they are now called, were to Elisha’s liking.
“She loved the noodles so we continued making them.
“At first we only used spinach. Now we have various flavours – carrot, beetroot, egg and black sesame, among others,” she said.
She let her friends and other relatives having the same difficulty with their children’s eating habits try out the colourful vegetable noodles, and it quickly grew into a business for the family.
“We started getting orders and expanded from making just 1kg or 2kg of noodles a day (in 2013) to an average of 200kg daily now,” Tan said.
The mother of two said she did not think that her simple idea could turn her into a businesswoman and ultimately change her life.
The activity brought them closer as a family – the children also gleefully help out – and also helped her develop new skills that built her courage and self-confidence.
“I was once a housewife who knew nothing about business or meeting people, but now I travel and take part in programmes like those organised by the Government to help small-scale women entrepreneurs,” Tan said.
She speaks with more confidence and dares to travel on her own now.
Tan was also successful in the recent Sabah LiveWIRE Programme which sees aspiring entrepreneurs pitch ideas to vie for a grant.
She received start-up funding of RM10,000 and support from Shell LiveWIRE facilitators for three years to help with her venture.