Ms. Ha's nearly 50-year-old sweet soup shop in Binh Duong: Only buys My Tho sugar, Da Lat beans, Thai sticky rice...

Ms. Ha's sweet soup shop specializes in selling traditional sweet soups - Photo: DANG KHUONG

Every early afternoon, a small corner specializing in selling traditional sweet soups of Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Ha keeps pace with the hustle and bustle of the place with the urgent calls of buyers and the urging of sellers.

Diners come to eat many times, word of mouth and call this place Ms. Ha's sweet soup shop.

The tea stall of the hard working days

Ha's parents separated when she was very young. Understanding her family's poverty and feeling sorry for her mother who had to raise 5 children alone, and being the oldest in the family, at the age of 11, Ha went to work to help her mother raise her younger siblings.

At first, she often wandered around bus stations to sell bread, cigarettes, iced tea, etc. In addition to selling on the street, she also knew how to cook milk and vegetarian food.

Ms. Ha loves to eat sweet soup, so whenever she has a bag of sweet soup, she will learn and imitate it to cook it. When cooking similar to the dish she has eaten, Ms. Ha will adjust the soup to get the taste she likes.

“It’s fate, because of that, now I only know how to hold firewood to cook sweet soup, I can’t read or write. At that time, I didn’t go to school, so how would I know?” - Ms. Ha laughed and shared.

Customers lined up to buy tea - Photo: DANG KHUONG

Ms. Ha felt lucky in her early days in the profession. She said: “When I was selling at Dinh Market, I sat on the ground and put the sweet soup basket in front of me. Customers at that time only sat on small chairs. When they finished eating, they threw a few coins into the basket for me. But it was crowded.”

Not only sitting in the market, ignoring the harsh midday sun, Ms. Ha also worked hard carrying the sweet soup to each house to sell, diligently collecting every penny.

Sharing with Tuoi Tre Online , Ms. Ha tearfully said: “Back then, I was like a dry tree standing in the middle of a field, having to stand up after failure. But I was happy because my siblings were all able to go to school. Now, they are all successful, have stable families and homes. If I could choose again, I would still want to follow this path.”

Cooking sweet soup is putting all your heart into it.

Every day, Ms. Ha wakes up at 4am to prepare the sweet soup. After lighting the fire, she meticulously washes and boils the beans in salt water, caramelizes the sugar water with pandan leaves, steams the sticky rice… then starts cooking the sweet soup. She cooks everything using a wood stove.

All ingredients are hand-picked by Ms. Ha every day - Photo: DANG KHUONG

Ms. Ha said that when cooking with a gas stove, the beans easily get “burnt” and not soft. Therefore, she uses a wood stove to make the beans softer, more fragrant and flavorful.

"I put all my effort into making any type of sweet soup, so making each dish is hard, no one dish is more enjoyable than another" - Ms. Ha said.

She said that from the past until now, she has only cooked sweet soup by herself, without letting anyone help her. The reason is: “I am very picky, I am not satisfied with other people's cooking. There is a person who has helped me sell sweet soup for 10 years, but I still do not let them cook.”

The current sales assistants mainly serve, clean, and pack tea for customers...

Coconut water is also made by Ms. Ha at home, cooked before selling - Photo: DANG KHUONG

She also carefully selected the ingredients for the sweet soup. The sugar must be My Tho granulated sugar, the beans are Da Lat beans, and some other types of beans from Long Xuyen. The sticky rice must only be Thai sticky rice, and the roasted peanuts must be cinnamon peanuts. She has been sourcing from these places for decades.

Currently, Ms. Ha's shop sells more than 10 types of sweet soup including: green bean sweet soup, mixed sweet soup, Ba Ba sweet soup... Besides, some dishes change daily such as taro sweet soup, corn sweet soup, floating rice balls sweet soup...

Dishes here start from only 20,000 VND a cup. The most expensive dessert is 25,000 VND.

The most popular dish at the restaurant is chè bà ba - Photo: DANG KHƯƠNG

Ms. Ha said that she used to have nothing. Now that she has overcome poverty, she always treasures food and drink. She confided:

“When I eat out, if I find it not delicious, I still appreciate it, because it is the work of the chef. If the customers at the restaurant don’t finish the food, I will scoop more sweet soup into bags for them to take home.”

When talking about the fact that for nearly 50 years, her regular customers still line up to buy chè, she confided: “Cooking a pot of chè means putting all your heart into it. Many times I starved myself to finish cooking a pot of chè.”

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/quan-che-co-ha-gan-50-nam-o-binh-duong-chi-mua-duong-cat-my-tho-dau-da-lat-nep-thai-20240715121519602.htm