At 4:00 p.m., Aunt Sau's beef jerky salad stall began to bustle with customers.
"Auntie, I'll take two servings home, please give me more sauce and chili sauce!"
"I'll sit in the park, Aunt Sau."
"Hurry up and bring it to me, auntie. It's going to rain heavily. Give me some shrimp chips"...
The calls for dried beef salad continued to ring out. Some drivers quickly pulled over to the side of the road, urging Aunt Sau to hurry up and get away, avoiding the impending rain. Some people, after ordering, quickly ran to Le Van Tam Park across the street, found a cool place to sit, bought a glass of fruit juice, and leisurely waited for the salad.
There was a new customer who came for the first time, ordered but didn't know where to sit. Aunt Sau looked up and said: "You can sit anywhere, dear. Go to the park to cool off, someone will bring the salad over soon."
Aunt Sau's dried beef salad counter consists of a small table, less than 1 meter wide, with a small glass cabinet placed above it, located in front of a building on Hai Ba Trung Street, opposite Le Van Tam Park (District 3, Ho Chi Minh City). The shop has no signboard or name. Customers tell each other that it is "Aunt Sau's dried beef salad" or "Le Van Tam Park dried beef salad".
Many people have been eating here for years, even decades, but do not know Aunt Sau's face. They just go to the corner of Le Van Tam Park out of habit. There is usually Aunt Sau's family waiting there to help customers order.
Aunt Sau's real name is Thuy (also known as Thuy), from An Giang, she is 61 years old this year. She is the sixth child in a poor family of 15 children. She had to drop out of school at a young age and work with her family to make a living. Aunt Sau is not a talkative person, usually only answering customers briefly. But if you come during off-peak hours, Aunt Sau will also very intimately tell you about her nearly 50 years of selling dried beef salad. "I started selling salad at 50 cents/plate. Over time, the price of ingredients has increased, now the price is 25,000 VND/plate," said Aunt Sau.
Before 1975, Aunt Sau's sister went to Ho Chi Minh City to start a business. After working many different jobs, the older sister tried making dried beef salad to sell on the sidewalk. At that time, the dried beef salad cart was pushed out in front of Hoa Lu Stadium. After only a few years, this dried beef salad was loved by the people of Ho Chi Minh City at that time, always crowded with customers. At that time, Aunt Sau was only in her teens, leaving her hometown to sell with her sister.
Every day, Aunt Sau wakes up at 4am to prepare ingredients for sale with her children and grandchildren, such as shredded papaya, shrimp crackers, fish sauce for salad, chili sauce, and most importantly, dried beef. Previously, she only sold from 1pm to 9pm, but now she opens her shop at 11am.
Aunt Sau's sisters have their own secret to making the papaya crispy, the beef flavorful, and the dipping sauce with a distinctive flavor. The papaya is grated thinly but still crispy. "I just grate a cabinet, when I'm almost done selling it, I call to have more grated at home to bring out. If I leave it too long, the papaya will no longer be delicious," said Aunt Sau.
These family ingredients are all homemade to ensure deliciousness, standard recipe and cost savings.
The beef jerky here is different from the taste in the North, it has a sticky, thick texture, not hard but soft and chewy. "Only my family knows the recipe for making beef jerky. Many people like this flavor so they come to buy by the kilo, take it home to eat gradually, the price starts from 350,000 VND. Now, the price of raw materials has increased but I am determined to make a profit, hoping that my dish will still make regular customers find it delicious and happy when enjoying it", Aunt Sau confided. The salad is served with crispy shrimp chips, rich in flavor, with the fragrant smell of shrimp.
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The part that enhances the flavor of the salad is the salad dressing. This dressing is rich, with enough sour, spicy, salty, and sweet flavors, mixed together, permeating each strand of papaya and dried beef. Aunt Sau often makes ready-made sauces and chili sauces to serve customers to take away.
Diners' seats are usually stone benches, brick platforms around the flower beds at the edge of the park, with a small piece of cardboard added. "There are many trees here, so on sunny days, sitting in the shade is still cool. I've been eating Aunt Sau's dried beef salad since high school. Now I'm studying at university 15km away, but I still often invite my friends to eat here. One day, while we were eating, it started to rain, and we ran away, getting soaked but still having fun. This has become a delicious, cheap snack full of memories for me," Thanh The (District 3, Ho Chi Minh City) shared.
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Aunt Sau's beef jerky salad stall creates jobs and helps support many family members. Family members, some packing the salad, some serving, some ordering... coordinate smoothly. At the park, Aunt Sau's family often sets up a motorbike as a "transit point", helping customers identify the sales location and serve them faster.
"Now, the city has more delicious dishes for diners to choose from. Vietnamese, Western, European, Asian dishes... are all available. However, the simple, rustic but rich flavor of Aunt Sau's dried beef salad still makes me miss it," a customer shared.
For Aunt Sau, this salad stall has become an indispensable part of life. It not only helps her and her family earn income but also brings joy. "Sometimes, just when customers nod and say it's delicious, I forget all my tiredness," Aunt Sau confided.
Aunt Sau and her family members work tirelessly to pack salad for diners.
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