A 90-year-old woman with a hunched back wakes up at 3am to cook noodles, keeping her deceased daughter's profession.

Selling vermicelli with meatballs while her back was already hunched and her skin was covered in age spots, a 90-year-old woman in Ho Chi Minh City moved many diners to tears when they learned the story behind her dish.

The special vermicelli noodle shop of an elderly woman in her 90s is located next to an alley on Doi Cung street. Photo: Ha Nguyen

Special noodle shop

Next to a small alley on Doi Cung Street ( Hoa Binh Ward, Ho Chi Minh City) there is a special noodle shop. The shop has only 2 stainless steel tables and a few small plastic chairs placed in front of the door of a 2-storey house.

The space inside is the family’s cramped living room, where a small table with bowls, spoons, chopsticks and a pot of dipping sauce is placed. Right behind it, a pot of broth is always boiling, steaming with a fragrant aroma.

Every morning, before the sun has risen, passersby see an old woman with a hunched back, silver hair, and freckled skin meticulously preparing to cook. That is Mrs. Ly Ba (84 years old), the reluctant owner of this 40-year-old noodle shop.

The shop is run by only one man, an old man with a hunched back and white hair, who sells from early morning until noon. Photo: Ha Nguyen

In his youth, Ba had tried many jobs to make a living, from small-time trading to factory work. However, he never opened a restaurant or sold his own cooking. Everything only started after the incident of losing his daughter.

Mr. Ba has 2 children: 1 boy, 1 girl. When she grew up, the daughter named Phuong expressed her desire to sell something in front of the house and asked her mother for suggestions.

Mr. Ba often traveled and ate many different dishes. Whenever he saw a delicious dish, he learned how to cook it and made it for his family.

Once, when eating Bun Moc, Mr. Ba found this dish very tasty, so he learned how to cook it and taught his daughter. Ms. Phuong learned quickly, and in no time was able to open a business and named the restaurant Phuong.

At first, the small restaurant only sold vermicelli with meatballs, then added vermicelli noodles and hu tieu noodles. Up to now, the restaurant has existed for more than 40 years.

Customers come to the restaurant from dawn. Photo: Ha Nguyen

Mr. Ba emotionally recounted: “Four years ago, Phuong passed away due to a serious illness. Suddenly, there was no one left to run the shop. I have loved working since I was a child, and I still have enough health and do not want the fire that my child lit to be extinguished, so I decided to continue to maintain the shop.

In the past, I taught Phuong to cook all the dishes in the restaurant. So when she passed away, only I could keep the same taste that the regular customers still remember.

The shop is small, only open from 4am to 11am every day to serve regular customers. I told my children to let me take care of it. At first, they were afraid that I would have a hard time, but I told them: as long as I have the strength, I will continue to work. Finally, my children agreed and supported me."

Mr. Ba said he loves working and wants to maintain his late daughter's restaurant, so he decided to sell noodles when he reached the age of 90. Photo: Ha Nguyen

Over 40 years of flavor retention

Currently, Mr. Ba lives with his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren in the house which is also the family noodle shop. The living room is used as a cooking and selling area, so all the family activities are concentrated at the back of the house and on the second floor.

To keep the restaurant from going out of business, Mr. Ba gets up at 3am every day to prepare the ingredients. By 4am, the noodle dishes are ready to serve the traders at the small market nearby. As the sky begins to lighten, more and more customers begin to visit the restaurant.

The restaurant has many dishes, but the most famous is bun moc. The clear broth is simmered from ribs for a sweet, low-fat taste. After being thoroughly blanched, the noodles are served with shrimp, ribs, and moc.

The vermicelli with meatballs dish at the restaurant is popular with many people. Photo: Ha Nguyen

Unlike many other places, the meatballs at the restaurant are not rolled into balls but are left in bite-sized pieces. The meatballs have a natural fat, sweetness and distinctive aroma. The ribs are stewed until tender but still retain the sweetness of the meat.

To make the dish more flavorful, Mr. Ba makes the dipping sauce himself from sweet and sour pickled shallots and delicious fish sauce. The accompanying vegetables are always fresh, picked and washed clean. Each portion of noodles here costs 50,000 VND.

Fresh, clean vegetables served with a dipping sauce made from delicious fish sauce and sweet and sour pickled shallots, adding a unique flavor to the dish. Photo: Ha Nguyen

Most of the restaurant's customers are long-time customers. Therefore, when his daughter took over the kitchen, Ba kept the old cooking method.

He chooses fresh ingredients. When cooking, he also rarely uses industrial spices. Therefore, his dishes are always rated by diners as delicious and safe for food.

A man who is a regular customer of the restaurant confirmed that the food here is delicious and hygienic. Photo: Ha Nguyen

Confirming that, a man in his 50s - a long-time regular customer of the restaurant - said that he had been eating vermicelli with meatballs here since the time when Ba’s daughter was still selling. His house was near the restaurant so he came to eat almost every week.

“I have been eating here for many years but have never found the food to be bland or to have changed for the worse. Because it is a regular restaurant, I know the cooking method and the ingredients she uses, so I feel very secure,” he shared.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/cu-ba-u90-lung-cong-day-tu-3h-nau-bun-giu-nghe-cua-con-gai-da-khuat-2455793.html