Vietnamese Hawker Who Went Viral For Provocative Outfits & FB Rants Opens Banh Mi Shop In Sin Ming
Yumi – the scantily-clad Vietnamese hawker who used to own a now-defunct drinks stall at Hong Lim Food Centre is something of a minor celebrity. She’s been living in Singapore since 2017 and earned her fame — or notoriety — thanks to a spicy blend of spunk and risqué fashion sense while filming mukbang videos or selling food. Fans of the social media-famous Vietnamese native, who boasts over 644K followers on Facebook, would know she no longer sells beer but now hawks fruits at a shop in Sin Ming Road. She also has an online business selling nuts. Now, the entrepreneur has a new venture – selling banh mi at Sin Ming Road, a few units down from her fruit stall. The takeaway spot is simply called Yumi, and sports the same signboard (with a buxom mascot) as her fruit shop.
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Yumi at her fruit stall
Affordable banh mi
Yumi took to Facebook on 30 October to announce her new business: “We’ve just opened our Vietnamese Banh Mi shop! To celebrate our grand opening, we’re offering amazing promotions. Buy a Banh Mi sandwich for as low as $1 and up to $4. Add a fresh juice or smoothie for just $1,” she writes. Well, the $1 ‘sandwich’ really refers to a plain baguette, though you can add an egg for $1 and veg for 30 cents.
Though her post stated that promotions would end on 3 November, Yumi confirms with us that menu prices haven’t changed yet.
Though Yumi doesn’t come down to the stall daily, she tells us that her “staff cook following my recipe”.
She sells nuts too
Aside from banh mi, we mentioned that Yumi also runs a nut business (under the same brand Yumi), where she sells “wood-fire roasted” cashew nuts in assorted flavours like ginger sesame. She sells her nuts via her Shopee storefront, but they’re also available at her fruit stall.
Famous for spicy posts & FB rants
So far, her post about her new banh mi joint has garnered over 200 likes across both her Facebook pages (she has two pages – Yumi Diary and Yumi Yummy – she uses the former to post more personal vlogs and rants), with fans congratulating her in the comments.
Rant about customer who falsely accused her of selling expired bananas
But that's nothing compared to Yumi’s viral posts, which easily garner over 1K likes. Besides the occasional risque selfie (which also attracts lots of likes from fans, such as the one above), one of her most shared posts was an FB rant she posted back in 2021 during the thick of the pandemic. Following a covid cluster in a KTV lounge, she alleged that a customer made xenophobic remarks, asking her to “go back home” and “all Vietnamese girls [go to] work at KTV, kiss and hug customers, [catch Covid-19] and [are] now passing it to others”.
In fact, just two weeks ago, she also posted a seven paragraph-long rant about an uncle who falsely accused her of selling expired bananas. “On my way to the shop, I checked the camera and saw that he had been deceitful — the bananas had actually been sold to him ten days prior,” she writes eloquently.
“Doesn’t visit the shop often” these days
However, here’s some disappointing news for fans who want to catch Yumi in the flesh – the mandarin-speaking Vietnamese tells 8days.sg that she hasn’t had the time to visit her stalls much. “Lately, I’ve been quite busy, so I don’t visit the shops often. My eateries are managed by my stall manager,” she says.
Nonetheless, she tells us that business has been “steady”. “Currently, it’s the holiday season, so you might notice that restaurants in Singapore are much quieter as people are traveling. However, I’m fortunate that my shop is located in an industrial area, so the customer flow remains steady. In particular, the sandwiches and juices are very popular here,” she shares.
Yumi’s banh mi stall is at #01-242, 22 Sin Ming Rd, S570022. Open daily 7am - 8pm. More info via Facebook.
Photos: Facebook/Yumi Diary
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