Customers enjoyed the dessert while listening to the owner play the guitar. Video : Ha Nguyen
Japanese style flower dessert
The pouring rain made Huynh Tuan Anh (30 years old) and his friends stop by a black sesame sweet soup shop on Nguyen Thai Binh Street (District 1, HCMC). After the group of young friends, a foreign customer also stopped by the shop.
In a leisurely manner, the owner of the tea shop, Mr. Hong Khac Le Cuong (70 years old) guides customers to choose seats as if they were chatting with acquaintances.
After everyone settled down, he slowly asked the customers for their orders and then went inside to prepare the desserts. Mr. Cuong's black sesame dessert shop is located in his family's small house.
The space of the shop is decorated with paintings, dolls, Japanese ceramics. The owner also decorates the shop with a piano and many other musical instruments.
To dispel the cold and wet weather, the group of young people ordered hot black sesame sweet soup. It was the first time they had tasted this strange sweet soup, Tuan Anh and his friends praised it as delicious.
Mr. Cuong's black sesame sweet soup is made from black sesame, rice flour, and sticky rice. The sweet soup is smooth. When eaten, the sweet soup has a sweet, fatty, and delicious taste.
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The black sesame sweet soup at the shop can be eaten plain or with coconut milk added. In addition to black sesame sweet soup, the shop also has green bean sweet soup, black sesame smoothies and several types of flan such as: black sesame flan, egg custard flan, matcha flan, coffee flan.
All the dishes here are prepared by Mr. Cuong himself.
Although located in the center of District 1, the richest district in Ho Chi Minh City, dishes at Mr. Cuong's restaurant only cost from 20,000-35,000 VND... The restaurant is open from 8-21h every day and is open continuously every day of the week, including holidays and Tet.
Mr. Cuong said: "This is a Chinese dessert, but I researched and prepared it in the Japanese culinary style.
Chinese people focus on the liquid part, boil it to get the liquid, rarely use the solid part. Meanwhile, Japanese people focus on the solid part.
I cook in Japanese culinary style so the dessert is smooth, not too watery, ensuring the fiber of the ingredients.
I choose standard, natural ingredients to ensure quality. I set strict quality requirements for myself, so I only cook and sell a small pot of sweet soup every day.”
Mr. Cuong cooked the pot of black sesame sweet soup for 4 hours. The ingredients include black sesame powder, rice flour, and high-quality sticky rice flour mixed according to a secret ratio.
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While cooking, he stirs continuously by hand for many hours so that the pot of sweet soup cooks evenly without burning or clumping.
Eating sweet soup while listening to the owner playing the guitar
In his youth, Mr. Cuong was a music teacher. However, he was not destined for the profession. After teaching music for a few years, he quit and went here and there to earn a living.
He had lived and worked abroad for many years. When he got old, he returned and became attached to his homeland. Without a pension, he and his wife wanted to do some work to earn an income and enjoy their old age.
After much deliberation, the couple decided to sell black sesame sweet soup because they realized that no one else was selling this dish, so they were not worried about competition. Moreover, black sesame sweet soup met their condition of “the dish must be easy to make, good for both the person and the customer”.
Because of his love for Japanese culture and art, Mr. Cuong learned how to cook black sesame sweet soup in this style. After cooking, he invited many strangers to try the sweet soup to get objective reviews and comments.
He filtered through reviews, comments and his own experience to adjust the preparation method. After many times of cooking and then throwing away, Mr. Cuong successfully prepared black sesame sweet soup that suits the taste of most diners.
In 2020, Mr. Cuong and his wife, Ms. Dieu Thi My Duyen (born in 1958), opened the shop. Ms. Duyen, a painter, decorated the shop with some of her own paintings. Mr. Cuong displayed ceramics, porcelain, and Japanese dolls that he had collected over the past 20 years.
Mr. Cuong and his wife's black sesame sweet soup shop attracts many domestic and foreign customers. Customers come to the shop from all walks of life and ages. Most of them confirm that the shop's sweet soup is delicious and unique.
At the shop, customers not only enjoy the desserts but also receive free music from the owner. While customers enjoy the desserts, Mr. Cuong often sits and plays melodious music on the piano in the shop.
Depending on the type of guests, Mr. Cuong chooses to play different genres of music. If the guests are older, he chooses timeless songs with deep melodies. If the guests are young, he chooses to play cheerful, lively music.
He confided: “I leave musical instruments at the shop, so that any guests who want can use them to play music as a form of entertainment, to satisfy their passion for music. I also often play music for guests or exchange music with them.
Not only domestic tourists, many foreign tourists who are artists, musicians… when traveling to Ho Chi Minh City also stop by the bar to exchange music with me. We often play music together in a friendly, happy atmosphere.
Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/quan-che-la-o-tphcm-khach-vua-an-vua-nghe-ong-chu-70-tuoi-choi-dan-du-duong-2404169.html
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