Aunt Hai's noodle soup

Just like clockwork. At exactly 6:30, Aunt Hai's call to sell noodle soup rang out in the poor working-class neighborhood, so that after finishing their meal, they could start a new day of making a living.

Before Aunt Hai could put down her carrying pole, the pot of noodle soup was already surrounded by all the "civil and military mandarins". Aunt Hai's noodle soup was a red noodle soup, with dried shrimp used to cook the soup, pork skin, fried tofu and blood, accompanied by a bowl of boiled morning glory, shrimp paste, lemon, onion, chili...

It is said that: Aunt Hai's mother used to be a resident of this neighborhood, famous for selling noodle soup on the main street before 1975, then passed the profession on to Aunt Hai. However, with those few ingredients, Aunt Hai transformed it into a "specialty" thanks to her "secret" recipe.

I don’t know how Aunt Hai cooked it, but the noodles, the kind of noodles that people often use to make beef noodle soup, were soft and chewy, with a beautiful annatto red color, but they didn’t break apart when picked up. The scent of dried shrimp mixed in with the delicious aroma every time she scooped out the broth for the customers, and the pork skin and blood didn’t smell bad at all.

The pot of vermicelli soup is like a symphony with fragrant broth, golden fried tofu floating on top with fried onions. Scooped into a bowl, it is an eye-catching color palette: the red of vermicelli and broth mixed with the blood color, the white color of pork skin, the green color of onions and coriander, the yellow color of fried tofu... When adding a little shrimp paste, not only is the vermicelli clean, but the pot of cold rice from yesterday is also left with only burnt rice at the bottom of the pot. Strangely, vermicelli soup, adding cold rice to it is so delicious!

The street vendors' cries of mothers, aunts, and sisters have become a part of the lives of Saigonese. There, the cries of Aunt Hai and the "legendary" dish of noodle soup have been deeply imprinted in the innocent soul of my childhood.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/huong-vi-que-huong-noi-canh-bun-cua-di-hai-18523042017461889.htm