Beef noodle soup "in the afternoon, in the morning"
Every afternoon, the beef noodle shop of two sisters, Ms. Nguyen Thi Dung (62 years old) and Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh (55 years old), located on the famous culinary street of Ho Chi Minh City - Phan Xich Long (Phu Nhuan District), is always full of customers.
In the afternoon, Mrs. Dung's beef noodle shop is full of customers.
Mrs. Dung is busy making dishes.
In the morning, Ms. Minh stands selling, and in the afternoon, Ms. Dung and two employees are busy preparing to serve customers who come to take away as well as eat in. That is probably why many customers jokingly say that this is a beef noodle shop "in the afternoon, in the morning".
The restaurant is not too big, but airy with 4-5 stainless steel tables and a few chairs for customers to sit and eat. In front, is the kitchen area where the owner makes hot bowls of beef noodle soup and brings them to customers, beautifully decorated with all kinds of "toppings" for a special bowl of beef noodle soup.
Pointing to the plate of golden fried sausage placed on the glass cabinet, Ms. Dung said that this is the pride and also the characteristic that has attracted customers to the restaurant for decades because there are few beef noodle restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City that combine beef noodle soup with this special ingredient.
Super fatty beef noodle soup with 'vet' pork is hard to find in Saigon
The stalls are beautifully decorated.
Among them, fried sausage is the special dish that customers love at this beef noodle shop.
It all started more than 40 years ago, when Ms. Dung was just a 20-year-old girl. “That day, I ate at a Hue-born woman’s beef noodle shop in Saigon, and she added fried sausage. It was the first time I had eaten beef noodle soup with such a strange combination. It was strange, but delicious.
I asked for the secret but was refused, so I figured out the recipe for beef noodle soup and fried sausage myself, then opened a small restaurant in Phu Nhuan market to make a living," the gray-haired woman recalled.
Right from the first days of business, the owner confided that her restaurant was crowded with customers. At that time, although it was just a small noodle shop, there were days when she sold up to 50 kilos of noodles. Later, when she had better conditions and for many reasons, she moved to a new location. In the early days, she was worried that moving would affect her business, but regular and new customers still came to enjoy a bowl of fried beef noodle soup at her shop.
Mrs. Dung has been selling beef noodle soup for over 40 years.
The owner continued: “Over the past 40 years, I have changed premises 7 times for many reasons, but mainly because the landlord did not rent it out anymore. I moved from Phu Nhuan, Binh Thanh, then District 1... but the more I changed premises, the more I seemed to do business and prosper. Maybe it was because of God's favor, and also the customers. The current premises have been here for 10 years, and it was fate that I settled here."
“This restaurant is unique in Saigon”
As the evening wore on, the restaurant became more and more crowded. Ms. Dung and her staff worked quickly to keep up with the demand so that customers did not have to wait long. Here, a full bowl of fried beef noodle soup costs 50,000 VND and a special bowl costs 70,000 VND, including crab patties, leaf patties, tendons, sausage, beef, pork leg, etc.
Rich broth.
A bowl of beef noodle soup costs 50,000 VND.
“The sausage is a specialty here, prepared with a unique recipe that is unlike anywhere else. The combination of this ingredient in the noodle bowl is also the secret to making customers come to the restaurant over the years, including my customers from previous branches,” the owner revealed.
Among the regular customers at this restaurant is Ms. Le Thi Bich Hanh (38 years old, living in Binh Thanh District). This afternoon, she stopped by to buy a full portion of beef noodle soup, plus a separate portion of fried sausage because she and her relatives also like to eat sausage here. She knew about the restaurant because her younger brother used to work here, for the past 3-4 years, she has stopped by to buy and eat 2-3 times a week.
"I'm a chef and I run a restaurant, so I have a very picky palate. But the beef noodle soup here is delicious, rich in flavor. I will support the restaurant for a long time," she said with a smile, then asked about the owner's business situation.
Ms. Hanh is a regular customer of the restaurant.
Mr. Hung "loves" fried sausage at the restaurant.
A moment later, Mr. Mai Van Hung (54 years old, living in District 1) stopped by here to buy 300 grams of fried sausage. While driving past Phan Xich Long culinary street, he accidentally saw a plate of fried sausage in front of the restaurant, which looked appealing, so he stopped by to buy it, and from then on he was "addicted" to this restaurant.
He commented that this is the “unique” beef noodle shop in Saigon because he has never seen any other shop that sells beef noodle with sausage. “My daughter likes to eat sausage here so she bought it, the price is not too high, 50,000 VND per tael,” the customer commented.
This beef noodle shop is the heart and soul of Mrs. Dung and her sisters.
For Ms. Dung and Ms. Minh, this beef noodle shop is their passion, their life. Thanks to it, they have a life that is “not to say rich, but full”. Although they are no longer young, the two sisters said they will still try every day to bring the most perfect bowl of noodles to customers, and also limit “moving premises”, so that customers do not have to… go looking for it.
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