Sugar, Spice, & Everything Nice

Introduce yourself!
My name is Wan Ying, and I’m a final year student at the National University of Singapore studying psychology.

Cool! Is this something you’ve always wanted to pursue?
I’ve always wanted to do something in the neuroscience and psychology field, so maybe for my masters I’ll pursue something more neuroscience-related. But I do also love fashion and art. I also love food, particularly chilli crab—I actually sell chilli crab that I make from scratch!

Oh my gosh, we were not expecting that. Tell us more!
I love eating chilli crab, so I decided to try cooking it myself. It was trial error for the first two or three times, but then I had the recipe down, and wanted to share my cooking with my friends, and also my mum’s friends, so I did that on @yings.wok!

I usually sell to my mum’s friends who order directly through her, so my Instagram isn’t updated. And because I was away for most of last year on exchange and visiting my boyfriend who lives in New York, I didn’t really have a lot of time to make it a lot, especially once school started this year.

That’s honestly so impressive! What’s the best chilli crab you’ve ever eaten?
Is it bad if I say my own? (laughs) No, but maybe I’d say it was in Penang. My mum’s from there, so we go pretty often, and there’s a restaurant there my grandfather always drives us to, but I don’t know the name!

What do you think makes a good chilli crab, then?
The perfect ratio of sweet, sour, spicy, and of course, a good fried mantou (Chinese fried bun).

Okay, back to the other aspects of your life—will you be pursuing your masters immediately after graduating?
No, I want to work first. I want to work in fashion for a bit, and I’m planning to move to New York to be with my boyfriend, so hopefully there’ll be more opportunities there!

That’s sweet! How did you two meet?
Oh, I met him in the ocean in Krabi (laughs). I was on holiday, and he was on holiday, and I saw him in the ocean but was scared to approach him. I was with my friend, and she encouraged (rather, forced) me to go up to him, so I did. He was actually with his dad back then, so you could say I met his parents at the same time that I met him (laughs).

Meeting the parents on the first date, huh?
Exactly! So we were together on that trip for two days, and then after that it was four and half months of long distance immediately.

That’s might just be the craziest meet cute story if we’ve ever heard one! How are you two making the long distance work?
He was born, raised, and is living in New York, so it’s a 13 hour time difference, but if you love someone, you really commit to it. And actually, the long distance really helps you build a strong base for the relationship. You have to talk all the time, and you’ll learn a lot about each other.

Well, here’s wishing you two all the best! What do you appreciate most about your boyfriend?
I appreciate his kindness, patience, and intelligence—everything about him, basically. And I think he’s beautiful, of course. That’s why I went up to him in the first place! (laughs)