Noodle soup costs 12,000 VND/bowl in Ho Chi Minh City, customers fill up the seats, order 2 bowls to 'save hunger'

"Please give me two bowls of noodle soup to save my life!"

This is the familiar way of ordering dishes for diners when coming to the noodle shop located on Truong Sa Street, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City.

“Yes, right away, right away. Please sit down!”

The owner happily answered the customers and then quickly put the noodles into the bowl, added 4-5 slices of fish cake, some green onions, sprinkled pepper and poured the clear, sweet, hot broth.

Each bowl of noodle soup costs only 12,000 VND, which seems impossible in Binh Thanh District - an area with expensive space and prices in Ho Chi Minh City. Normally, noodle and pho dishes here cost from 35,000-50,000 VND/bowl, or even higher.

After nearly 4 months of opening, the noodle shop of Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai Yen (29 years old, Ho Chi Minh City) has quickly won the hearts of customers.

“This noodle soup dish originated from my husband’s hometown in Nha Trang. I have enjoyed many times the noodle soup made by my husband’s aunt. Nha Trang fish cake noodle soup has a sweet and clear broth, chewy fish cakes, and is super cheap, so I was impressed and liked it from the first time I ate it. Later, my aunt fell ill and could no longer run the restaurant. I was determined to learn the recipe from her and went back to Ho Chi Minh City with my husband to open a restaurant,” Yen recalls.

Bringing fish cake noodle soup to Ho Chi Minh City to start a business, Ms. Yen also had many worries. At first, due to financial constraints, Ms. Yen only found a small space in Binh Thanh district, just enough to set up a counter and 5-6 small tables. Each time, she only welcomed 10-12 people/turn. The restaurant was small, but the couple tried to arrange it neatly, tidily and cleanly. The signboard "famine relief noodle soup" was hung in front of the restaurant, making many passersby curious and taking the time to stop by to try it. Word of mouth spread, and after just over a month, the restaurant was bustling with customers coming to eat, buy take-out, and order delivery...

According to Ms. Yen, "famine-saving noodle soup" is not a name she came up with. This is actually the name that Nha Trang people often call when referring to fish cake noodle soup. "In the past, each bowl of noodle soup here cost only 500 VND, now it costs 8,000 VND/bowl. The price is very cheap, everyone can buy it, even poor workers, students", she said. A bowl of noodle soup is super cheap but still enough to fill the stomach, is popular with many people, so from there the name "famine-saving noodle soup" was born.

Each bowl of noodle soup at Ms. Yen's restaurant costs 12,000 VND. The special bowl with pork patties, meatballs and fresh fish costs 30,000 VND.

According to the restaurant owner, the fish cakes are made by the family from fresh fish meat, without adding any flour. "I usually use two main types of fish, barracuda and anchovy. Sometimes, if I don't have enough of these two types of fish, I mix in other fish meat. Barracuda and anchovy are the standard ingredients for making Nha Trang fish cakes. The fish meat is chewy, delicious and produces a more distinctive product than many other types of fish," Ms. Yen shared.

Accordingly, Yen's husband's family will buy fresh fish at the seaports in Nha Trang early in the morning, bring them back to clean, use a machine to separate the bones and meat of the fish. The meat will be ground by machine, then minced and left to rest for 2-3 hours, before frying. The finished fish cakes are vacuum-sealed and transported to Ho Chi Minh City. Every two days, the fish cakes will be transported from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh City once to ensure they are always new and fresh.

The restaurant has both large and small vermicelli noodles. For the small vermicelli noodles, Ms. Yen also transported them from Nha Trang at the same time as the fish cakes because, according to her, the small vermicelli noodles in Nha Trang have their own characteristics.

According to Ms. Yen, the original Nha Trang fish cake noodle soup does not have any vegetables. Diners are served a little Nha Trang-style dipping sauce to dip the fish cake or pour into the broth. Thus, they have a bowl of noodle soup that is filling and authentic.

After the fish is filleted, Ms. Yen will use the bones and skin to stew and create a characteristic sweetness for the broth. “A delicious bowl of banh canh is thanks to the broth that has the natural sweetness and aroma of the fish bones, plus the restaurant's own seasoning. Every day, I stew two large pots of broth with about 160 liters of broth. That's enough to sell,” Ms. Yen confided.

The restaurant is open from 8am to 1pm and from 4pm to 9pm. Ms. Yen said that she sells about 500 bowls of banh canh every day. Customers come to the restaurant from all walks of life, from students, poor workers to even customers who come by car, all of whom love this dish.

Mong Tuyet - a customer living in District 9, regularly visits the "famine-saving noodle soup" shop 2-3 times a week to enjoy this warm, delicious bowl of noodle soup. "I like the fish cakes here, they are crispy and chewy, dipped with a piece of chili fish sauce, it's delicious. What I like most is the sweet broth, not greasy like other broths. It's a pity that the space is a bit cramped, and when it's crowded, you have to wait a long time," Tuyet shared.

After nearly 4 months of opening, Ms. Yen has just opened another branch in Go Vap to meet the needs of diners. The bowl of banh canh is simple but delicious, almost everyone who comes here orders 2-3 bowls to eat, many customers also buy more to take home or order more sausage to eat separately.

Article and photos: Vu Nhu Khanh

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