The image of a motorboat running on the river carrying a box of ice cream sandwiches is probably very familiar to those who were born and raised in the river area. Whenever they were at home, the children would go down to the riverbank to wait for the silhouette of the ice cream sandwich seller's boat passing by.

Not far away, this nearly 20-year-old ice cream bread boat belongs to Ms. Tu Loan (Dang Thi Loan, Nha May B Hamlet, Khanh Hung Commune, Tran Van Thoi District). Although she is nearly 55 years old, her life has not lessened the hardships from when she was a girl until now. Every night, Ms. Tu makes her own coconut ice cream in a stainless steel bucket, then the next morning she takes the bread, carries the ice cream bucket down to the boat to prepare for a day of selling. To keep the ice cream from melting in the sun, she places the ice cream bucket in a styrofoam box, instead of a refrigerator. The boat carrying the ice cream bread bucket just keeps going along the rivers, canals, and streams.

Ms. Tu Loan stores the coconut ice cream in a stainless steel container, surrounded by a styrofoam box to keep the ice cream from melting. When selling, she scoops the ice cream onto bread, drizzles it with peanuts, and sweet condensed milk.

Ms. Tu said: “My husband and I are from Bac Lieu . To make a living, we bought a motorboat to sell salt here. We saw that the business was good, so we settled down here. There is no land to produce, but in the past, we learned how to make ice cream, so we bought a boat to make ice cream to sell. My husband still sells salt. We sell more in the dry season than in the rainy season. The children love to eat it. On days when it is too windy and rainy, we have to stop. We go around the hamlets to sell more than 20 km. On good days, we sell 150 loaves of bread and 6 kilos of ice cream, on bad days, we sell 70-80 loaves of bread and ice cream. If there is any left, my husband, my children and I eat it instead of rice. Every day, we earn 150,000 VND for bread, 120,000 VND for gas, and 150,000 VND for ice cream, so after deducting all expenses, a profit of 150,000 VND is very happy.”

In the countryside, ice cream sandwiches are the children's favorite snack. Asking adults for 5,000 VND, the children go to the riverside to watch the ice cream sandwich seller as she drives by on a boat. Besides ice cream sandwiches, Ms. Tu Loan also sells ice cream cups, meat sandwiches, and sausage sandwiches, with a variety of dishes for the children to choose from and change their menu.

Mr. Nam An (Tran Van An, Sao Luoi Hamlet, Khanh Binh Tay Bac Commune, Tran Van Thoi District) is over 60 years old, has several grandchildren, every few days they ask him for money to buy ice cream bread. He also often eats with the children for fun.

“If you buy ice cream sandwiches for the kids, they will be very happy. The lady selling ice cream sandwiches lives far away on the Sao Luoi dike, so the ice cream sandwich seller will only come by boat at noon. Especially during this summer break, as soon as I finish eating, the kids are already waiting for me.”

On hot summer days, for adults, eating a cool ice cream sandwich brings back memories of childhood.

Ice cream bread is a popular snack that has been around for a long time in Ca Mau . Nowadays, this childhood snack is also sold by motorbikes on the concrete roads. But somewhere on the rivers, there are still ice cream bread boats that exist as a testament to time.

A special thing is that you can eat this dish in any season, because ice cream combined with bread will not be too cold but refreshing, nor too sweet. In modern times, with so many new types of ice cream, ice cream bread is no longer sold much, even very rare. That is why, when you eat this dish again from time to time, you will find the taste of childhood interesting and precious./.

Thao Mo

Source: https://baocamau.vn/xuong-banh-mi-kem-a1522.html