MALAYSIA: A food vendor who sold Nasi Lemak in Dungun, Terengganu, for RM410 (S$124.34) went viral recently, but she says she stands by her prices, adding that 90 per cent of people who comment on social media support her.
Juraida Mamad, who owns Umi Nasi Lemak, said she had even had customers in the past who had been willing to pay her the princely sum of RM1,200 (S$364) for their order.
The video of Ms Juraida selling several orders of Nasi Lemak with lobster for RM410 was posted on her account earlier this month.
@juraidamamad2 orang besut sila hadir🦑🦑🦑🦞🦞
In it, two women are seen ordering nasi lemak from the vendor along with lobsters, prawns, fried chicken, and other choice ingredients.
We dare you not to get hungry while watching it. (The other impressive part is when she does the mental math of computing the customers’ total).
The video has been watched a whopping 2.8 million times.
However, according to mStar, not everyone was happy with Ms Juraida, feeling she had overcharged her customers.
The food vendor, however, merely shrugged this off, recognizing that online critiquing is expected when one operates a business.
The former accountant told mStar she is no newbie to the business and can ignore everyone who drops negative comments.
Ms Juraida told the news outlet she’s had a TikTok account for a while now and does not lose heart at people’s critical comments.
“The reason is only 10 per cent criticize, the other 90 per cent support me,” she added.
She sells a truly stunning array of side dishes for her Nasi Lemak, including lamb shank, squid, prawns, fried anchovies, sambal anchovies, codfish, cod fish heads, scallops, eye eggs, boiled eggs, quail, squid eggs, fish eggs, and sambal chicken.
And for nasi lemak with a side of lobster, prices start between RM70 (S$21.23) and RM90 (S$27.30) because the price of the lobster depends on its size.
Ms Juraida doesn’t just serve the residents of Terengganu; her customers come from further afield, Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, and even Singapore.
“They are willing to ‘fly’ here to try my Nasi Lemak,” mSays quotes her as saying, adding that the “sweetest experience” she’s had at work came in the form of a visit from the Sultan of Terengganu, Mizan Zainal Abidin, who wanted to see the dishes she served.
The one-time accountant left her job to care for her children but eventually felt bored just staying home. During the Covid pandemic, she began by selling side dishes in her mother’s stall.
Later on, she opened a stall right beside her mother’s. /TISG
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