Chinese comfort food in the City

Kea Teo, Vanessa Goh and Andrew Yu founded Rice Guys in 2017. They met while working in finance in the City of London: ‘We realised there wasn’t an option for quick, healthy Chinese food. We wanted to start a business and street food was the most accessible option,’ says Kea.

Vanessa says, ‘We’d finish trading and watch food trucks drive o‰ while we spent ages packing down. That was when we decided to invest in a truck. It gave us the opportunity to talk to people directly. Many asked us to add Hainanese chicken rice to our menu, but we didn’t know what people would make of poached chicken with gelatinous skin. In Asia, it’s common street food.

‘We introduced it, and now it’s one of our most popular dishes. When someone says our food tastes like home, it makes us feel what we’re doing is worth it.’

When someone says our food tastes like home, it makes us feel what we’re doing is worth it