A woman with a taste of the West roams around Ho Chi Minh City, 20 years selling the rare and hard-to-find dish "banh canh but not banh canh"

Ms. Quyen with her Western-flavored tea cart in the heart of Saigon.

Every day, from 6am, Ms. Quyen’s colorful sweet soup cart in alley 180, Pham Phu Thu is always bustling with customers. Most of the customers are people going to the morning market. Besides, there are also many curious people who come to enjoy the sweet soup.

Banh canh... but not banh canh: A unique, rare and hard-to-find dessert

Che banh canh is a dish originating from the Western provinces, but because it is not popular, it is still unfamiliar to many people. As one of the few sellers in Ho Chi Minh City, Ms. Quyen shared:   "Very few people know about banh canh dessert, but if you get used to it, you will find it delicious."

A unique dessert, rice noodles that are... not rice noodles, makes many people curious.

With her hands deftly taking tea for the guests, Ms. Quyen said:   "Since I was 7 years old, I have been carrying sweet soup with my mother to sell on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City to make a living. When I was 12 years old, when my mother was old, I was taught the profession by my mother and carried sweet soup to sell on my own instead of her."

In 2000, she rented a small corner in Binh Tien market to sell traditional Western sweet soups such as: Ba Ba sweet soup, sticky rice sweet soup, etc. But the situation of buying and selling sweet soups at that time was very difficult. To stick with her mother's traditional profession, Ms. Quyen always had to change and diversify many different sweet soups.

When she saw that an acquaintance selling banh canh near her area had just stopped selling, Ms. Quyen decided to sell this dish. She tried it herself, tried it over and over again, and failed many times before she came up with her own secret recipe.

"At first, I failed a lot when making this sweet rice noodle soup. Sometimes the noodles broke, sometimes the soup wasn't delicious. But after making it over and over again, now everyone says it's delicious. I'm so happy," Ms. Quyen smiled and shared.

In addition to banh canh sweet soup, Ms. Quyen's shop also has many other types of sweet soup prepared from the West, which she makes completely by hand.

She said this type of sweet soup is made from rice flour, cooked with palm sugar. When she bought the rice flour, Ms. Quyen kneaded it until smooth, then took out the worms in the old way. Then she cut the flour into noodles, then put them in to cook with palm sugar, simmering for about 2-3 hours.

Over 20 years of preserving traditional tea flavor

Most of the steps in making the dessert are done by hand by Ms. Quyen, following the old traditional method. The homemade noodles are both chewy and soft, combined with palm sugar to give the dessert an eye-catching color and a sweet taste that permeates each strand.

When enjoying this dish, diners will feel more stimulated when eating with coconut milk. For Ms. Quyen, sweet soup must be eaten with coconut milk to make it less boring, creating a fatty, fragrant feeling when eating.

Although, banh canh dessert with only 3 simple ingredients: rice flour, palm sugar, coconut milk but creates an extremely delicious flavor and makes some people "crave" when mentioned.

Currently, in addition to the unique banh canh dessert, on Ms. Quyen's dessert cart there are more than 8 different types of desserts such as: floating rice balls dessert, banh xep dessert, pandan corn dessert, thung dessert, bean dessert,... The desserts are placed in giant colorful basins, looking very eye-catching.

Although selling chè in Ho Chi Minh City, Ms. Quyen's chè still retains the traditional flavor of the West. According to her, to make customers trust and come to enjoy chè, there must be a secret recipe.

That is because she always puts the quality of tea first, good ingredients make good tea.   "I am very careful in choosing ingredients. I only buy good ingredients to cook. If I can't choose the right ingredients that day, I won't cook that dessert."   Ms. Quyen said.

Ms. Quyen's "awesome" billboard.

After all this time, attached to the tea selling profession, Ms. Quyen confided that the tea stall is the place to support her whole family. Up to now, thanks to the delicious tea flavor and special banh canh tea, Ms. Quyen's tea stall is also known by many customers near and far.

"The banh canh dessert here has a rich sweetness and creamy coconut milk. The sweet dessert flavor has a strong Western flavor and is only 10k/portion, very delicious," a customer shared.

Source: https://toquoc.vn/nguoi-phu-nu-mang-huong-vi-mien-tay-rong-ruoi-khap-tphcm-20-nam-ban-mon-banh-canh-nhung-khong-phai-banh-canh-hiem-co-kho-tim-20240320092855575.htm