Come to Hai Phong to enjoy the specialty spicy bread

When it comes to Hai Phong specialties, there is a typical bread dish that cannot be found anywhere else, which is spicy bread.

Spicy bread, also known as baguette, is a famous and typical snack of the Port City. Spicy bread is smaller than regular bread, about two fingers wide and about a span long. Inside is only pate filling and eaten with “chi chuong” - a type of chili sauce from Hai Phong.

One of the oldest and most famous places to sell spicy bread in Hai Phong is Ba Gia Spicy Bread, located at 57A Le Loi Street, Ngo Quyen District, Hai Phong City. Ms. Pham Thi Thuy, the current owner of the shop, said that the shop was opened by her grandmother, Toan, about 20 years ago. Ms. Thuy is the third generation to take over the shop after her mother stopped selling.

The shop has a spacious area of about 20 square meters, airy and clean, and can serve about 30 people at the same time. The shop opens from 6am to 8pm every day. In addition to spicy bread, the shop also sells some drinks such as Thai tea and lime tea with prices ranging from 5,000 to 15,000 VND.

Ms. Thuy said that what makes her spicy bread famous is the pate, which Ms. Thuy makes herself at her family’s workshop. With common pate ingredients such as pork, liver, salt, and pepper, Ms. Thuy seasoned and processed it according to a family recipe.

Many diners here also acknowledge the taste of Mrs. Thuy's pate. Nguyen Thi Duyen (27 years old, Hai Phong) said she had tried some other spicy bread shops but the taste was not to her liking. "Some places have a lot of fat in the pate so it's a bit greasy, some places are dry and not as smooth as here," Duyen said.

The cooked pate is shaped into molds, weighing about 3 - 4 kg. The maker uses a knife to cut along the length of the bread and then uses a knife to spread the pate in the middle. During the process, the staff wears gloves to ensure hygiene.

Ms. Thuy said that a layer of pate that is too thick can easily make diners feel bored and not be able to eat much, while a layer that is too thin can make diners not feel the flavor. Therefore, the pate layer is spread just enough, according to the specific quantity. When used to it, the maker can estimate by eye.

“Spicy bread must be dipped in chi chuong to have the right taste,” said Ms. Thuy. Chi chuong is the name of the chili sauce in Hai Phong, it has a light consistency, bright red or orange-red color, fragrant, rich flavor, not purely spicy like normal chili sauce but mixed with a little bit of sourness.

The way to eat spicy bread is not to pour chili sauce on top, but to dip it into the bowl of chi chuong and enjoy. The crispy crust, the spicy and slightly sour taste of chi chuong mixed with the smooth, salty, and rich pate layer in the middle creates a special flavor.

“Spicy bread with chi chuong is delicious, but if you take it home and eat it with another type of chili sauce, it won't have the same taste as when you eat it at the restaurant,” Nguyen Duc Tu (24 years old, Phu Tho ) shared his own experience.

Because spicy bread is about 1/3 the size of regular bread, one person can eat many. When asked about the amount of bread sold, Ms. Thuy said it was difficult to estimate exactly, but 1,000 breads was still quite a small number. Especially on the weekends, the amount of bread can be double or triple the amount of bread on weekdays combined.

To ensure enough bread to serve customers, Mrs. Thuy's restaurant has its own bread factory.

There are about 10 employees working continuously at the shop to produce hot and spicy sandwiches. The step that requires the most people is spreading the pate. The sandwiches with all the ingredients are neatly arranged in baskets, waiting to be baked and delivered to customers.

Previously, the restaurant's customers were mainly Hai Phong residents and regulars from some neighboring provinces. Since the Hai Phong food tour trend emerged, more and more out-of-town visitors have come to the restaurant to enjoy spicy bread, lining up in long lines every weekend. Customers are of all ages, but the majority are young people.

Spicy bread is considered a snack for the afternoon, so after work, people take advantage of the time to eat or buy to take away. On weekdays, the busiest time is around 4-6pm.

Take-away sandwiches are packaged in packs of 10, priced at VND30,000. The restaurant also does not forget to add extra packs of chi chuong for diners to eat with. One thing to note is that if you want to eat spicy sandwiches, you should ask for extra chi chuong, which is free.

Looking at the neatly arranged spicy bread bags on the aluminum table in the middle of the shop, Thai Thi Hau (28 years old, Hai Phong) immediately recognized this as Ba Gia Spicy Bread Shop because she was a regular customer since Mr. Toan was still sitting at the shop (around 2015). Hau shared: “Partly because of the taste, partly because I like to sit and watch her (Mrs. Toan) meticulously make each bread, so when eating I feel very secure. Now that she is no longer here, I also work far away, so I only occasionally come back to the shop to enjoy the old taste.”

A customer bought 80 spicy sandwiches at the restaurant.

Not fussy with many ingredients, just bread, pate and chi chuong, but spicy bread has become a specialty in Hai Phong, sought after and enjoyed by tourists all four seasons. Spicy bread is also often in the top of the list of must-try dishes when experiencing food tours in the city of red phoenix flowers.

Article and photos: Quynh Mai

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