The house in the city
The story of the country-style restaurant with city prices has become the center of attention on digital platforms in recent days. Many people come here out of curiosity about why the prices for rustic dishes are so expensive. But there are customers who are willing to pay to sit down and enjoy the flavors that are not just a little salty and sweet on the tip of the tongue, but a whole world of memories, peaceful memories of the countryside, the roof of the house in the long years gone by.
Depending on the needs of customers, the countryside restaurants in the city have a wide range of prices. There are many restaurants that have been around for more than ten years, positioning themselves in the high-end food service segment, but only selling familiar dishes in home meals with a pot of braised meat, a plate of fried shrimp, and boiled vegetables cooked in a rustic way that is still enough to retain customers for many years.
From the experts' perspective, the business equation must go hand in hand with profit, a convenient location combined with attentive service, is also a reasonable explanation for a country meal at a city price. But somewhere, beyond the sweet and fragrant taste, sometimes people just eat with a look. Because from the food to the dishes, tables, chairs, space... all create a familiar feeling for customers, a feeling that a person's current way of thinking can sometimes be calculated in decades or more, and a chopstick of rice is imbued with the old taste of grandmother, mother or older sister, older sister in the house cooking rice waiting for the children to come home to eat.
Spending nearly 3 million VND for a meal with 5 members, Ms. Nguyen Hoai Phuong Thu (45 years old, office worker, living in Tan Phu district, Ho Chi Minh City) shared: “My group of friends and I like to meet at restaurants or cafes with rustic, old-fashioned decoration, to find familiar things from childhood often seen in the hometown. Once, in the restaurant, there was a teapot kept warm in a coconut shell, it was so simple but it made the whole group emotional, because looking back, I missed my grandparents in the countryside, who made hot tea like that every morning. The price is a bit high, but in return, we get to see moments of a little bit of family love, a little bit of hometown that everyone is busy with work, busy studying and forgets without realizing it”.
Familiar values, spiritual foundation
There is now a set of criteria for building a happy family, but perhaps not many people like to sit down and read the rules carefully, because happiness has no rules. For a long time, as a default source code in the Vietnamese spirit through many generations, a family meal gathering all family members together is also a standard of happiness. A family meal not only fills the hungry stomach but also nourishes the soul, connecting members of many generations to understand each other better. In the hustle and bustle of busy life outside, people come home to eat a meal as if to "heal" all the injuries accidentally encountered in the journey of growing up.
Home-cooked meals are not about salty, sweet, delicious or bad, but learning how to reconcile generational gaps, giving in and loving every little bit to save. For many years now, as the lifestyle and thinking of society have changed, a number of young people have chosen to be free to live alone, renting their own house when their family lives right in the city, but still not forgetting the delicious taste of their mother's cooking.
Tran Minh Trung (26 years old, landscape architect, living in District 8, Ho Chi Minh City) confided: “I often joke with my sister that since I rented a house, my family happiness index has increased. Because I often stay at home late, surf the phone and computer a lot, my parents will remind me, or I buy many technological items according to my wishes, my parents often tell me not to waste money, learn to save money, save money. I have rented a room for nearly 3 years now, but I regularly come home twice a week for dinner, sometimes my parents will not understand the thoughts of their generation, but the home-cooked meals are always full of love and deliciousness that have helped me grow up.”
In many countries around the world , in Western culture, home-cooked meals seem to be reserved for the elderly because their children have moved out and become independent, and they rarely even cook because they are used to eating at restaurants or eateries near their homes. But for Eastern people, especially Vietnamese people, home-cooked meals are in everyone's mind, so that all the extravagance and splendor on the outside can overwhelm people, but they only truly shed tears at the simplicity and sincerity.
In the trend of creating content on digital platforms, many young people choose to return to their hometowns, making videos of simple family cooking with vegetables grown by their mother, fish caught by their father in the pond... There are no strange spices or unique recipes, but these videos still quickly reach millions of views, because those images seem to touch the memories of viewers. Home-cooked meals always grow with each person, when they are young, home-cooked meals are with grandparents and parents, when they get married, home-cooked meals warm the love between husband and wife, and when they are old, home-cooked meals are with their children and grandchildren... Or when inviting to a death anniversary, people also honestly say: "Please come to my house to eat a death anniversary meal for your paternal/maternal grandparents".
Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/huong-vi-tinh-than-post801600.html
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