For nearly 50 years, the porridge shop hidden in a alley in Ho Chi Minh City has been selling all night long, attracting customers thanks to its unique recipe.

Open all night for nearly 50 years, the mother-daughter rib porridge shop in a small alley always attracts customers from 2pm to 10am thanks to its rare, hard-to-find recipe.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

Amidst the sleepless pace of life in Ho Chi Minh City, sidewalk eateries open all night have become familiar meeting places for Saigonese.

Without flashy signs or luxurious premises, these small shops still attract customers with their own secret recipes, preserved and passed down through many generations.

VietNamNet newspaper introduces a series of articles " Sidewalk restaurants crowded all night in Ho Chi Minh City ", recording simple but famous addresses - where flavors sublimate amid street lights and the bustling breath of the city at night.

Nearly 50 years of selling through the night

At midnight, after a night out, a girl named Ngoc (21 years old, HCMC) and a group of friends turned into an alley on Tran Khac Chan Street (Tan Dinh Ward, HCMC).

After the dark alley, the group stopped under the porch of a small house with a few low plastic tables. The space was a bit shabby, but this was one of the most famous night porridge shops in the city.

The small shop is neatly arranged right in front of the house, with a table full of attractive bowls of side dishes. Next to it is a large pot of porridge placed on the electric stove, the steam rising and the attractive aroma making it hard for anyone passing by to resist.

Ngoc (in black shirt) and her friend came to experience the night porridge shop located in an alley on Tran Khac Chan street. Photo: Ha Nguyen

Unlike many other places, the porridge here is cooked as smooth as flour. Depending on your needs, you can choose to eat with dozens of dishes such as ribs, pork skin, intestines, tongue, throat, heart, liver, quail eggs, egg yolks or century eggs... Each bowl costs from 45,000 to 100,000 VND, depending on the portion.

“I really like the porridge here because the taste is similar to the porridge shops in the North that I used to eat. For me, this is a rare place that makes me feel like I am back home, since I moved from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City to live and work,” Ngoc shared.

The girl said the dishes at the restaurant were delicious and had the taste of her hometown. Photo: Ha Nguyen

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hao (72 years old), the owner of the shop, said that the porridge shop existed before 1975. Before that, the shop was run by her mother-in-law.

When she became a daughter-in-law, Mrs. Hao was assigned by her mother-in-law - a Northerner - to cook porridge according to the family recipe. Initially, all the steps of seasoning and preparing side dishes were directly undertaken by Mrs. Hao's mother-in-law. Only later, when she had become familiar with the job, was Mrs. Hao passed on all the secrets to cooking a pot of delicious porridge.

After the liberation day, she started cooking and selling porridge on Yen Do street, in the old Binh Thanh district. At that time, her hot and fragrant porridge stall quickly became a familiar "meeting place", with many people coming to buy it.

The porridge shop was inherited by Ms. Hao from her mother-in-law. Photo: Ha Nguyen

She said: “I started selling porridge when I was 22 years old, until my shirt was worn out. It was very hard back then, even when I was pregnant with my son, I still had to carry porridge everywhere to sell to earn a living.

In 1979, I moved to sell in an alley near my house, then later moved deeper into the alley, setting up my shop right in front of the door. If we count from 1975, my porridge shop would have been 50 years old."

Despite being "hidden in an alley", Ms. Hao's porridge shop is still known by customers near and far. Therefore, instead of only opening in the morning and afternoon like before, she decided to open all night. For the past several decades, her porridge shop has always been open from 2:00 p.m. the previous day to 10:00 a.m. the following day.

Secret

For the past 50 years, Mrs. Hao has kept the secret of cooking a unique porridge dish passed down from her mother-in-law. Every day, she selects good rice and washes it with salt water. After washing, the rice must be naturally dried and then ground into flour.

The finished rice flour is seasoned first and then cooked with rib and bone broth to create a naturally rich and sweet taste. During the cooking process, Ms. Hao watches the temperature and stirs constantly so that the porridge expands evenly, does not clump, and does not burn.

Before cooking porridge, Ms. Hao washes the rice, drains it, and grinds it into flour. Photo: Ha Nguyen

For side dishes, Ms. Hao used to go to the market herself and choose fresh, clean, and high-quality food. Later, because she had been selling for a long time, she got it from regular customers.

The finished porridge is smooth, not too runny and not too thick. Photo: Ha Nguyen

However, she still maintains the habit of checking the quality of these foods in the strictest way. For fresh pork intestines, when receiving the goods, she cuts them into short pieces to check. If she finds that the intestines have not been cleaned or are not fresh, she will return them immediately.

After checking the ingredients, the restaurant staff will process them many times using their own methods to clean and remove the smell. Therefore, over the years, the small restaurant has never been turned away by customers because of the quality of the food or food hygiene issues.

The restaurant is open all night so it serves a wide range of customers. In addition to city residents and night-goers, the restaurant also welcomes many famous artists.

Depending on their needs, diners can choose to eat porridge with dozens of side dishes. Photo: Ha Nguyen

Ms. Hao confided: “Over the years, I have many memories with special guests. Some were street people, drug addicts… who came to eat and then left without paying.

There are also people who come to the restaurant during difficult times, then when they become successful, they come back to say thank you. There are many such customers, even those who go abroad, 20-30 years later when they come back, they still come back to eat the same bowl of porridge.

I remember most a young man who stopped by the shop on a rainy night. After eating, he said he had no money left and asked to borrow some money. I happily agreed, because I thought a bowl of porridge was not worth much.

For nearly 50 years, the small shop has been open from 2pm to 10am the next day. Photo: Ha Nguyen

"Decades later, a rich man came to eat porridge. After finishing, he asked me to pay the bill and then gave me back many foreign bills.

I didn’t accept it, thinking he was mistaken, then this person said he was the person who had bought the porridge in the past but didn’t have enough money to pay. After that time, he went to work abroad. Now that he was successful, he came to find me to thank me. Hearing that, I was very happy and touched,” Ms. Hao added.

Currently, the porridge shop is run by Ms. Hao's son. Photo: Ha Nguyen

Now that Mrs. Hao is old, she no longer stays up late to sell all night. She has handed over the job of cooking porridge, preparing side dishes, and selling all night to her son, who is about the same age as the owner of the porridge shop.

“Staying up all night to sell is also very hard. At first I was not used to it, I had to drink coffee continuously to not feel sleepy.

After a while, I got used to it and no longer felt too tired. Now, after working all night, I still sit in the morning to cut off intestines, boil eggs, slice meat... and then go to rest. Having been attached to the shop since I was young, I always consider the family porridge shop as a part of my life," Ms. Hao's son shared.

At midnight, the sidewalk on Tran Binh Trong Street (Cho Quan Ward, Ho Chi Minh City) was packed with people and vehicles. In addition to the diners sitting at the tables, there was also a line of people waiting their turn.

Dear readers, please read the next article: A noodle shop that opens all night in Ho Chi Minh City, customers who want to eat must line up and wait 45 minutes.

The unique banh xeo restaurant of the couple with the same name in Ho Chi Minh City makes many diners curious because every time they come to eat, they have to wait for the owner to light the stove, stir the batter, and pour the pancakes.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/gan-50-nam-ban-xuyen-dem-quan-chao-nup-hem-tphcm-hut-khach-nho-cong-thuc-la-2452098.html