It is not difficult to find the alley 242 Lac Long Quan street (Tay Ho district, Hanoi), the unsigned donut shop of Ms. Mai Hoa's family is always crowded with customers lining up to get donuts, whether it is winter or summer.
Although located in an alley, the shop is quite crowded. The owner will give out a ticket with a number for customers to line up, avoiding the situation of "first come first served having to wait for the next person". When the owner calls out the number, it is the turn to get the cake.
According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa (owner of the salty fried cake shop - 50 years old), the shop has been in business for more than 30 years, since my mother's time, and there are only 2 types of fried cakes: sweet fried cakes and salty fried cakes. Although the shop has no signboard or advertising, it has always been crowded with customers for decades. The important thing that keeps customers coming back is the hot salty fried cakes, crispy on the outside, fragrant and delicious on the inside, served with papaya salad and the shop's special sweet, sour, spicy and salty chili sauce.
"To make a savory donut, you have to go through many meticulous steps, of which the three main steps are: making the filling, wrapping the donut in flour, then frying it several times in cooking oil until it's cooked evenly and ensuring the crust is crispy and drained of oil. The filling is filled with vermicelli, lean meat that is not minced but left in thin pieces, wood ear mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms... Notably, the donuts here are not served with sweet and sour fish sauce like many other places, but the shop pours a "divine" dipping sauce on each bowl of donuts," Ms. Mai Hoa added.
The cake making and processing corner allows customers to observe many stages. To serve dozens of customers in a row, the restaurant has 5-6 people working non-stop. Some people quickly shape the cakes, some quickly fry them, some cut them, pack them...
Coming here for an afternoon snack, Ms. Quynh Trang (Hoang Quoc Viet Street, Cau Giay District, Hanoi) said: "This has been my favorite fried cake shop for nearly ten years. The difference here compared to other shops is that the sauce is poured right on the cake and especially the cakes here are very big and the filling is very full, just eating two is enough to fill the afternoon."
Mr. Nguyen Hoang (Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi) shared: "The flavor of the cakes here is very delicious and rich. Although sometimes during rush hour, I have to take a number and wait in line for 15 to 30 minutes, but I find this is also a very unique and interesting feature of the shop."
Customers here are of all ages, from the elderly to children, but mostly young people. They consider this as an afternoon snack. The shop is open from 10am to 7pm. The cakes are delicious and the prices are reasonable. Only 10,000 VND for a salty donut and 8,000 VND for a sweet donut.
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