/roundup_19_april_2024_rectangle.jpg?sfvrsn=898f23d7_1 "What To Do This Weekend (19 to 21 Apr 2024)")
Eat Delicious Home-Cooked Food And Homebakes And Help Needy Animals Too
At its best, the social media space can be inspiring: a cornucopia of text and images that help one create mood boards, make lifestyle changes or, best of all, spark the flame to do good.
For Joey Wong, 34, it alerted her to the needs of stray dogs and dogs that have been abandoned.
“That kind of need is really beyond our belief,” says the marketing manager and owner of a two-year-old Cavapoo – a mix between a Cavalier King Charles and a poodle – named Toffee.
This prompted Joey to set up Toffee Feeds The Tummy in August this year, an initiative that offers private dining and homemade bakes, with proceeds going towards local animal welfare charity Causes For Animals.
While Joey helms the cooking and baking, her sister Su Kie, 30, is in charge of operations and customer service.
To date, they’ve organised three private dinners and two bake sales and raised $3,000.
And what can you expect from these dinners ($55 per pax, minimum of four diners) that take place at Joey’s home in Woodlands? Everything from Hokkien, Cantonese and Hainanese fare to more Western options, fusion surprises, and Japanese and Korean delights.
“Our forte is Chinese dishes because that’s our concept of having a hearty and very warm meal together as a family,” says Joey, who customises her menu according to her diners’ needs. “Let’s say someone wants all vegetarian, we can do that. That’s not an issue.”
As for the homebakes, while Joey has been very satisfied with the result of the two bake sales she’s conducted (and which she announces on Instagram), she readily admits that she is finessing the right formula for success – the right number of orders balanced with what she (or rather, her oven) can cope with.
“The first time we [held a bake sale], we almost baked on a daily basis,” Joey recalls. “I literally had to bake for a total of close to 28 hours!”
Joey does small-batch baking. What does that mean? “Every hour, we can only churn out maximum 30 cookies,” Joey explains, adding that cookie (or "brookie", brownie-like cookie) orders can be self-collected on weekends at three pick-up points: Woodlands, Bishan and City Hall.
And with Christmas around the corner, it’s no surprise that Joey has something decidedly festive up her floury sleeves: a very limited batch of miso dark chocolate brookies (pictured below).
“It’s very limited. We’re still thinking about how many pieces to bake because of the work involved,” says Joey. “It’s actually a two-day bake, so you cannot bake it immediately. You need to freeze it. So, the work is a lot more. It’s limited. We are going to limit the number.”
Did we mention it takes a lot of work and it’s very limited in number?
When we commend Joey for her noble cause, she brushes off the praise saying it’s “really not noble”, and it’s all about “how we try to go the extra mile within the confines of a lifestyle we’re familiar with”.
“No help or support is more noble than the other,” says Joey. “We always advocate that you give your support on your own terms. I think that’s quite important.”
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