A Taste Of Home

Introduce yourself!
I’m Sabrina and I’m a shipbroker by day. But on the weekends, I run a Greek bakery called Yia Yia Pie from home.

Cool! Greek pies aren’t very common in Singapore—what inspired you to start?
That’s exactly why! Because no one in Singapore has ever tried Greek pies. And also because I travelled to Greece and found out that I really enjoy eating Greek pies (laughs).

Well, now you’ve got us intrigued. How long have you been running this business?
This is my second year, and it’s been going great! In the beginning, we started off getting orders from Singaporeans like yourself who have never tried Greek pies before, but slowly, the Greek community in Singapore started to learn about Yia Yia and now, my customers are mostly Greek expats working here who miss home. Yia Yia means grandmother in Greek, and these pies are like something their grandmothers would make for them in Greece, so it really reminds them of home.

Yum! Are these pies sweet or savoury?
We have different flavours, but our original one is a spinach cheese pie so that’s savoury. Our classic custard one is also popular—that’s one of my favourites.

Okay, we’ll definitely be placing an order soon! Is it tough juggling your day job with this side hustle?
Definitely. I run Yia Yia alone, so I only do it on the weekends now. In the beginning, I would still say yes to orders on weekdays, but it got really difficult to manage, so I’ve drawn the boundary and only run Yia Yia on the weekends now.

That makes sense. Have you ever done any in-person pop-ups or events with Yia Yia?
I would love to, but there are so many guidelines and hygiene criteria to deal with, so being fully home-based is what’s easiest and best for me right now.

Final question—tell us more about your tattoos!
Oh, I have some on the soles of my feet too. They were more painful than ticklish, and because I have two feet, after the artist was done with one, I realised there was still one more to go (laughs). But one of my most meaningful tattoos is the North Star one. The meaning behind it is that no matter what you’re doing, you just have to find your North Star and keep going towards it. In shipping especially, it’s what sailors would use to navigate in the past so that they wouldn’t get lost. So to me, if you’re always following your purpose, you will never get lost.