By day, Noorazlina Ajis, 37, and her husband Kazhendra Kas Kazan, 40, run a bustling ayam gepuk (Indonesian smashed fried chicken with sambal) stall in Ang Mo Kio. By night, the couple transform into performers, entertaining crowds at a bar in Boat Quay.
The Muslim duo behind Ayam Gepok Anak Mak are longtime musicians from local live band Nation One, and they still perform weekly gigs amid juggling the demands of running a hawker business. Their band plays party electronic music by the likes of Bad Bunny, Blackpink and Zedd.
“We never expected to enter the F&B industry full-time,” bubbly lead singer Noorazlina aka Raz tells 8days.sg.
It was while assembling her band lineup that she met bassist Kazhendra, who would later become her husband.
“When I was looking for a bassist for the band, that’s when I met my husband,” Raz laughs. “I thought this one [was] not bad and cute.”
The pair have since spent over a decade performing at bars around Clarke Quay, weddings, and corporate events. Today, Raz serves as Nation One’s lead vocalist and band manager, while her husband is the band’s bassist and music director.
Photo: Instagram/thebandnationone
The couple still perform every Friday night at Hero’s Bar along Circular Road in Boat Quay, though Raz says she has drastically cut down on gigs since opening her stall in Ang Mo Kio.
“Juggling music and ayam gepuk is very tough,” she says. “That’s why I cut my performance days to only once a week. It feels like such a waste to quit singing since I still have my band.”
“The gig pays less now that we only perform once a week,” she says. The stall, meanwhile, is now close to breaking even after six months of operations.
For Raz, music is more of a passion than a side gig. “If I don’t sing, I get sad,” she says simply.
The duo are also slated to perform at GastroBeats this June.
Worked as a waitress as a single mum at 17
Raz’s journey was far from straightforward. “I was a young single mum at 17 and it was taboo at the time,” she tells 8days.sg. “I ended up working as a waitress at night as it paid more than a daytime retail job, and most places wouldn’t hire me as they were concerned I wouldn’t be able to commit fully once they found out I had a child to support.”
Her now 28-year-old son from a previous relationship works outside of F&B.
Participated in Singapore Idol
Raz’s singing career only started in her 20s when she began taking part in local singing competitions like Live the Dream. She made it to the top 60 of Singapore Idol and won a Japanese singing competition organised by 96.3FM at the age of 21.
“I even became a guest judge of the [Japanese] competition the following year,” Raz shares.
“Singing helps me to express myself,” she shares. Her love for singing began when she joined a choir in school when she was eight years old.
Raz later became a resident singer at Highlander Bar in Clarke Quay, where she performed for almost five years. “Even that was unplanned,” she laughs. “I walked into the bar and jammed and landed a job [as a resident singer] there.”
Sacrificed being signed as a Sony artiste to support son
In 2000, Raz was given what could have been her shot at stardom. “I got a contract offer from Sony Music to sign me as an artiste,” she says. At the time, digital music and social media did not exist yet. “But I turned it down. They wanted me to change my image and drop my job at the bar.”
“They asked me to work in Topshop as a sales assistant instead [while working on music releases with Sony], because working at a bar was not good for my ‘image’,” she shares. “But that job paid $900 a month, compared to the $3,000 a month I was earning at the Japanese bar.
“As a mother, I couldn’t afford to leave my current job for what they proposed,” she adds solemnly. “I wouldn’t say I regret [the decision], it was something I had to sacrifice as a responsible mother.”
Her band Nation One was formed in 2013 after Raz decided to branch out on her own.
“I decided to form my own lineup [as a freelancer] and just happily make music without being controlled by the rules and regulations of a bar,” she says. “Music is supposed to be happy, right?”
Today, Raz and Kazhendra have a 12-year-old daughter together, whom Raz says has inherited their musical talent. “She has perfect pitch,” she says proudly. “Kazhendra calls her ‘a walking metronome’ because she loves tapping on things.”
Raz shares that their daughter is autistic. “It’s super tough running the stall while raising a child [with autism],” she adds. “Sometimes when I come home late from the stall, she has a meltdown as she doesn’t regulate [her emotions] very well. She can read and write, but she can’t converse.”
Both Raz’s son and daughter help out at the stall occasionally. “My daughter is getting better in the kitchen, because she also learns life skills at school,” she adds.
Her food biz began with a 30-tub order of Malay dessert for a pregnant pal
The couple’s unexpected F&B journey began during the pandemic, when live music gigs became scarce due to Covid restrictions.
What started as a simple favour for a friend soon developed into a home-based food business.
“One of my friends requested for me to make her pregnant friend Badak Berendam because she was craving it,” Raz recalls, referring to the traditional Malay and Indonesian kuih made with chewy glutinous rice balls. “I told her I’d just make some for free, but they ordered 30 tubs after that.”
Soon, more orders started pouring in through word of mouth.
The stall’s name, Anak Mak, which roughly translates to “mother’s child” in Malay, is also a tribute to Raz’s mother, who used to make curry puffs and other traditional food when Raz was growing up.
The pivot to ayam gepuk
The couple later expanded into dishes like nasi lemak, mee rebus and mee soto, often selling them through online live streams.
But it was ayam gepuk — the Indonesian-style fried smashed chicken dish known for its spicy sambal — that eventually became their breakout hit.
What’s ayam gepuk?
Believed to have originated from Central Java, ayam gepuk is often compared to the more familiar ayam penyet. Fried ayam gepuk is usually lightly flattened and distinguished by its creamy, nut-infused sambal, typically made with ingredients such as cashews, giving it a richer texture than the sambal served with ayam penyet. The dish is also commonly accompanied by stir-fried vegetables, alongside fried tau hu and tempeh.
After noticing the dish going viral in Malaysia in 2025, the pair decided to introduce it during Ramadan the same year.
Took months to perfect recipe
“It’s simple food with chicken, vegetables, sambal and rice but it’s just so nice,” Raz gushes.
Raz says she personally developed the ayam gepuk recipe herself over two to three months. “I didn’t want to follow exactly what other ayam gepuk stalls in Malaysia were doing,” she explains.
During the recipe development stage, she frequently travelled to Johor Bahru to try the ayam gepuk from one of her favourite stalls there.
“I kept thinking of how to make the chicken better,” she says.
From home-based biz to hawker stall
The couple eventually opened their physical stall in Ang Mo Kio in December 2025 after their home kitchen became increasingly difficult to work in due to constant frying.
“There was oil on the walls, oil on the floor,” Raz laughs. “People downstairs would complain they could smell the frying.”
Today, their stall sells ayam gepuk from $8.50, with customers able to customise their spice levels and add sides like crispy chicken skin ($2), bergedil ($1) and egg ($1). The menu also includes nasi lemak, mee soto and mee rebus for $4.50 each.
“Lunch crowd more stressful than performing”
Despite having over 20 years of performing experience, Raz says handling lunch crowds at their stall is actually far more stressful than singing on stage.
“Performing for me is relaxing because it’s my passion,” she says. “But handling the lunch crowd is definitely more stressful.”
She explains that manpower shortages often force her to handle long queues alone. Raz does most of the cooking and runs the stall, while she and her husband take turns looking after their daughter at home.
Hour-long queues at peak hours
“Sometimes customers wait almost one hour because the queue is very long and I sometimes run the stall by myself,” she says. “But they still wait!”
Even so, Raz says the transition from musician to hawker has been rewarding. “I never imagined running an F&B business, but the opportunity just came to us,” she says. “I grew up helping my mum make curry puffs, and Kazhendra’s late mum owned a prata stall, so this kind of life feels [quite natural] to us.”
“There’s still a lot for us to learn, especially about manpower and operations,” she admits. “I miss singing more often, but this [F&B] business needs a lot of passion too.”
No regrets
Her musician friends love her spicy ayam gepuk, “I dabao some for them on Friday nights,” she chuckles.
When asked what she would’ve told her younger self about the fact that she’d sell ayam gepuk as a hawker in future, Raz laughs and replies: “Go for it, girl!”
She elaborates: “Sometimes, I wish I’d started [Anak Mak] earlier — I could’ve done with more energy. But life has its way of working itself out. I’m happy with how things have turned out.”
Ayam Gepok Anak Mak is located at #01-877, 215 Ang Mo Kio Ave 1, S560215. Open Wed to Mon, 12pm to 8.30pm. Closed on Tue. Tel: 8951-0912. More info via Instagram.
Photos: Ayam Gepok Anak Mak
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