Thai Hung Pho restaurant is located in a small alley on Nguyen Huy Luong Street, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City. The restaurant is small and the tables and chairs are also small, less than 10 tables. Customers also talk very quietly. Actually, it is okay not to talk. On the table there is a board, roughly: what customers want to eat, how much it costs, write it down on paper. The pieces of paper are the size of matchboxes, neatly arranged in the chopstick holder. It has to be written down because the waiter is deaf, and his hearing is not as clear as normal people.
"Poor people can't eat pho?"
Customers come to the restaurant gently, quietly, and politely. Ms. Tra Dung said: The economy is difficult, so the number of people coming to the restaurant has decreased, sales are only half of what they used to be. Customers come here to order pho at any price, the more money they have, the more meat they have. This has its history.
At that time, she had a relative in Cho Ray Hospital (HCMC). Next to her was a child taking care of her mother. Her mother craved pho, so the child took a plastic cup and ran away. A moment later, she ran back, holding an empty cup. She cried. She asked why, and she said: "Pho is sold for 10 thousand but I only have 5 thousand". She thought hard: "Are poor people not allowed to eat pho?".
Ms. Mai Ha Tra Dung works in the kitchen at Thai Hung Pho restaurant, always with a bright smile and a love of life.
In 1995, the family encountered a crisis and went bankrupt. Not sitting still and taking it all in, from a high-ranking employee of Hitachi, dressed in neat clothes, with a shuttle bus to work, she bought a big pot, saved 100,000 VND, bought meat and bone broth, cooked porridge to sell in the neighborhood. Her husband was shocked, and his pride caused him to throw away pots and pans. She had to whisper to her husband, to put down her pride to feed her stomach.
But the pot of porridge got the family through the worst of times. Then she sold vermicelli soup with crab. Finally, she stopped with pho. Pho helped her regain what she had lost and build her career. Now every morning she stands in the kitchen, quickly making pho, her deaf niece Thi serves, and her husband "obediently" arranges the carts for customers.
Thai Hung pho is as delicious as any other pho. But it is more modern in that it has traditional pho, green star anise pho, silver star anise pho. There is also vegetarian pho for dieters - especially sick people. The broth is made from many kinds of fruits, including ginseng to nourish the weak.
Caring for the disabled
Thi, a waitress, has a very pitiful situation. Thi is from Tay Ninh. Her mother died of cancer when she was only 6 years old. Her drunkard father saw that she was mentally disabled due to cerebral palsy and abandoned her. Her second aunt took her in to raise her, but due to difficult circumstances and her absent-mindedness, she was not allowed to go to school, even a school for the disabled, but was locked up at home for 20 years, not allowed to contact the outside world.
Ms. Tra Dung performs pho at ASEAN Food Week 2018 in Malaysia
Ms. Tra Dung happened to know about the situation, brought the child to the shop, trained the child to interact with people and taught him how to work. "At first, he was as bewildered as a wild man. But now after 2 years, he knows how to do everything skillfully. He just has a hard of hearing and doesn't understand many long sentences," Ms. Tra Dung said.
Thi only understands simple words. When taught letters, she often forgets, only remembering words that are repeated every day enough to work. She doesn't know how to do math, and no matter how much she is taught, she still doesn't remember anything, and she doesn't know all the denominations of money. Therefore, Thi can't calculate money. That's why the restaurant invites customers to choose their own dishes and prices from the menu on the table. If they want to add anything, there is a price list for customers to pay themselves. "At first, many people were annoyed because they weren't used to it, but then everyone sympathized," Ms. Tra Dung shared. No wonder that in the morning when I arrived, a customer passed by and bought pho to take away, grumbling: "What kind of restaurant makes customers write down the price of pho when they buy it, it's strange...".
Thi is a girl who, at first glance, is known to be unusual, despite her bright face, slender body, cleanliness, and gentle features. "A person like that is working to support three other people, including an aunt who is now over 70 years old and is taking care of her elderly mother, and a 93-year-old grandmother who is senile. Seeing such a situation, can I ignore it?", Ms. Tra Dung confided.
Thi, a deaf employee who was taken in by Tra Dung, currently works at a pho restaurant.
Thi's aunt previously took care of her and her disabled husband, who passed away 2 years ago. When she was young, her aunt took care of her. Now that she is old, even though her grandchild is deaf, she still provides her with a meal of vegetables and porridge, thanks to the kindness of Ms. Tra Dung. In addition to her main job at the pho restaurant, she also supports teaching the children at the Ho Chi Minh City Center for the Disabled, as well as teaching culinary skills to new graduates who want to start a business.
"When teaching deaf children to work as waiters at the Center for the Support of the Disabled, I met many children in difficult circumstances. They really wanted to work but few places would accept them. Therefore, I cherished the idea of opening a pho restaurant, a place for them to work to spread the action of supporting the disabled to work in the community, support themselves and be respected," she expressed.
Ms. Tra Dung 29 years ago, when she sold a small pot of porridge at the alley entrance when she was down on her luck.
Five years ago, a Japanese organization learned about her model of creating jobs for deaf children at her pho restaurant and asked her to help organize this model. Now, she has helped complete the model and they invited her to Japan after Tet to inspect it, also to express their gratitude. She was very happy: "I know I did the right thing, doing something useful for society and for the children."
She said that many children confided that they felt very self-conscious and inferior when not only their friends and society but also their families sometimes looked down upon and rejected them. Therefore, when they got a job and received their first salary, some children hugged their sisters and cried... They knew that they could work to support themselves and not become a burden to anyone if they tried hard and had a good working environment.
Her dreams are still ahead. Right now, her biggest wish is to find a location with a suitable price to open a shop, to accept more deaf children to work. "But the price of the location is too expensive, I can't afford it. If I open a shop, I won't be able to support the children and will suffer. But I still dream, I won't give up," she said.
Bringing Vietnamese Pho to the World
Pho Thai Hung has been brought to the world by owner Mai Ha Tra Dung many times. Bringing it to the world is not to sell pho but to promote Vietnamese cuisine. In 2018, Pho Thai Hung was chosen by the General Department of Tourism as the dish to serve for "Vietnam Day" in Chiang Mai (Thailand).
Last year, she also brought her pho to attend "Vietnamese Pho Day" in Japan (organized by Tuoi Tre Newspaper) and left a deep impression on the Japanese people.
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