Melaka’s Famous Popiah Stall Owner Fires Back With 263-Word Response To Price Complaints

0 Sara Smith May 18, 2025

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Few things hit quite like Melaka’s legendary pork lard popiah (spring rolls) in the world of Malaysian street food.

Those delicate, soft wheat flour rolls filled with stewed turnip, vegetables and enriched with lard cracklings have been making people’s days for generations at Bunga Raya Popiah.

But when this iconic stall rolled into Kuala Lumpur with their food truck, they found themselves in the middle of a very modern food fight.

@foodiekom Malacca long queue roadside crispy lard popiah!!! 马六甲街边出名猪油渣薄饼！ BUNGA RAYA POPIAH (124, Jln. Bunga Raya, Kampung Jawa, 75200 Melaka) #malacca #马六甲 #马六甲美食 #melaka #malaysianfood #melakafoodie #wheretoeat ♬ original sound – FoodieKom – 新马大吃货

The drama kicked off in SS2, Petaling Jaya, where business hasn’t exactly been booming.

Long-time fans started dropping truth bombs in the comments: “It doesn’t taste like it used to,” wrote one 30-year veteran of the popiah game.

“Too expensive now,” chimed in another.

You know, the kind of comments that make any business owner’s blood pressure spike.

Talk is Cheap, Food Isn’t

But instead of taking it lying down, the owner, who’s carrying on his parents’ legacy, went full Gordon Ramsay with a 263-word manifesto that basically translates to “Try running a food business in 2025, smartypants.”

“Everyone wants to talk about my dad’s prices from back in the day,” the owner fired back.

How about we talk about my mom, who busted her ass making these pancakes after getting married?”

He’s got a point—a simple plate of chicken rice that used to cost RM6 is now RM9-10 in most kopitiam.

“You think I want to charge more?” he continued.

I’ve got workers to pay, a family to feed, and ingredient costs that would make your head spin. We’re not running a charity here.

The Price of Nostalgia: When Your Favourite Street Food Can’t Stay Cheap Forever

The whole saga is like a microcosm of what’s happening everywhere: beloved street food joints trying to keep their heads above water while customers pine for the good old days of cheap eats.

It’s the classic immovable object meets unstoppable force – tradition versus inflation.

Look, nobody’s winning here.

The customers want their affordable comfort food, and the owner just wants to keep his family business alive without going broke.

Welcome to the real cost of keeping tradition alive in 2025.

These complaints about Bunga Raya Popiah aren’t new—they’ve been circulating for years as the stall gradually adapted its recipe and pricing.

I had popiah that was as thiccccc as a burrito #wootwootmakanmakan

Bunga Raya Popiah, in front of Madam King’s [Non-halal]
6.5/10

It’s too sweet and there’s nothing exciting about it except the crispy pork skin (?) or bits of lard (idk man, it was crunchy and smol) pic.twitter.com/Yr2ZTI3RHx
— (@thewootwoot) February 27, 2022