About a year after her husband passed away, the elderly owner of Million Star Fried Banana in Changi Village Hawker Centre has finally found a successor.
After its secret recipe and name were sold for a six-figure sum, the goreng pisang stall has reportedly reopened under a new owner.
Source: Google Maps
Million Star Fried Banana reopened on Saturday (6 July), reported Shin Min Daily News.
The new owner, a 61-year-old Chen Shuqing (transliterated from Mandarin), said she officially took over the business on 1 July.
She had met Mdm Li Ruiying (transliterated from Mandarin), the previous owner, a few months ago, she told the paper.
She decided to take over the stall as she felt “heart pain” that the 79-year-old woman was running the stall on her own.
Due to her advanced age, Mdm Li doesn’t have the energy to carry many goods, and Ms Chen hoped that she could retire soon and enjoy life.
As previously reported, Mdm Li’s son James Chan, who had taken over the business, died suddenly in February 2022 at the age of 49.
Source: Shin Min Daily News
This prompted his heartbroken parents to return to run the stall, which had been around for more than 20 years.
However, the older Mr Chan subsequently died in July 2023, leaving Mdm Li to run the stall herself despite mourning the double tragedy.
Since then, she has been opening the stall intermittently, looking forward to finding a successor.
Mdm Li told Shin Min that she was reluctant to sell the stall to an outsider as it was the product of her family’s many years of hard work.
However, she’s glad somebody is willing to take over the business and carry on its name.
She will continue to guide Ms Chen on how to fry their products, including nian gao (sweet cake) and tapioca.
Source: Edde Edeleden Chan on Facebook
If she doesn’t do well, she will “scold” her, she said.
Once she can do it by herself, Mdm Li will go on vacation in September to visit her daughter in the United States, she added.
As for Ms Chen, she might be a “newcomer” to Million Star, but she has more than 10 years of experience in F&B, she said.
In fact, at present, she also runs stalls selling food such as nasi lemak, desserts, economical rice and fishball noodles.
This isn’t the first time she’s sold goreng pisang either. A previous goreng pisang stall she opened closed down after a few months due to poor sales, she added.
However, she believes it’ll be a different story with Million Star due to its established brand name.
The stall has already got off to an encouraging start by earning more than S$1,000 after its first day of operations.
She intends to open daily for the first three months, saying:
As long as the taste is there, customers will come.
Also read: Changi Village Goreng Pisang Auntie Runs Stall After Son & Husband’s Passings 1 Year Apart
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Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News on Facebook and Google Maps.
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