Raising children with a noodle cart 'made in Quang Ngai'

That is the noodle cart of Mrs. Le Thi Hue, 61 years old this year, from Duc Pho town, province. Quang Ngai.

She said that in 1995, when her youngest son was just 20 months old, she decided to take him away from her poor hometown (Duc Pho district) to Ho Chi Minh City to find a way to make a living. When she was still in her hometown, she “learned” how to cook Hu Tieu, a typical dish of the Quang people, so when she moved to the South, she decided to choose the job of selling Hu Tieu to make a living. She has been selling Hu Tieu since the time when a bowl of Hu Tieu was “common” for only a few thousand Dong, and now it costs around 25.000 Dong, and if the bowl has ham, it costs 30.000 Dong. In total, she has been “attached” to the Hu Tieu cart in this land for almost 30 years.

She said, “back then, people from Quang Nam” who were far from their hometowns and came to Ho Chi Minh City to make a living, by selling noodles like me, had to go knocking around the neighborhood, around the alleys to get the ‘right’ sound, which people often called… knocking noodles”. The tools to knock noodles around the alleys were just two small, round pieces of wood, the person knocking just held the two pieces of wood and knocked them “clack, clack” together to make the sound. She hired someone to knock noodles around the alleys. Some evenings when they didn’t have school, her children would come out to help their mother and knock noodles.

With a gentle smile and a typical Quang Nam people's open-hearted voice, she said, "Nowadays, people who sell noodle soup don't have to knock like they did more than ten years ago. Sometimes, regular customers who want to eat a hot bowl of noodle soup call me to bring it to their home. It's less tiring, but sometimes I feel like something is missing. Sometimes, when I sit and sell, I feel a little sad, suddenly I crave the feeling of hearing the knocking sound, I crave the sound of 'clack, clack' of two pieces of wood hitting each other, made by people who have been selling noodle soup like me for the past few decades."

Many regular customers come to her familiar noodle cart every afternoon to enjoy a hot bowl of noodles. Some have been attached to her noodle cart for nearly 30 years, like Mr. Nguyen Van Dung (a worker, from Phu Yen) said “It is true that the taste of the bowl of Hu Tieu Go sold by Mrs. Hue is the way of making and processing of the people of Central Vietnam, from the very rich and unforgettable seasoning to the spices, bean sprouts, chives... all originating from Central Vietnam...”.

Most of her regular customers, who come to eat a bowl of noodles, come from all walks of life, from high to low, but mostly students, workers, or nighttime street sweepers, and people who collect scrap metal.

She said that for decades, she had sold “for free” and sold on credit countless times to poor people who were living far from home, struggling to make a living at night. Sometimes it was a cleaning lady who forgot to bring money, sometimes it was a poor old lady who went to collect scrap metal at night but didn’t have enough money to buy a bowl of hu tieu go, and sometimes it was people who got lost at night and lost all their money. Some people came to her and ordered a bowl of hot hu tieu go, slurped the bowl, touched their pockets and realized they forgot to bring money, she smiled kindly and said it was okay, come back to eat when you have time and then pay her later.

The conversation between me and her “paused” when her phone “ringed”. On the other end of the line was a regular customer asking her to make 2 bowls of noodles. Putting down the phone, her hands moved quickly and professionally, she made 2 bowls of noodles according to the regular customer’s request and then took them away…

She said, “To have a delicious bowl of noodles, the broth is just right for diners with a unique and special flavor, especially for regular customers from Quang Nam, I have my own secret when seasoning and adding spices typical of my hometown when cooking noodles. Every time I go back to my hometown, I buy and bring along spices typical of my hometown to save…”.

On busy days, when the stalls sell out early, she returns to her rented room at almost 23pm. On slow days, especially during the rainy season, when the streets are sparsely populated and there are few customers, it is common for her to have to push her cart back to her rented room alone in the middle of the night. She says she tries to sell until everything is sold out, because sometimes customers miss the way, come home late from a night out and stop by for a hot bowl of noodles.

In recent years, especially since the pandemic, her noodle cart has been selling much less than before. Sometimes, in the late afternoon and early evening, she only sells a dozen bowls, and her profits have decreased. But that has not stopped her from selling the cart or her job, because selling noodles has become her lifeblood and the life of her entire family.

When I asked an old woman, alone like her, making a living on the street, if she was afraid of danger or bad guys, she smiled gently and said, “My life has been poor, making a living with this noodle cart for decades, surely bad guys know, I don’t have much money, I only have a few coins on me. But God must be merciful, I’ve been selling at this familiar street corner for decades now and have been safe and sound, I’ve only met good people, people who love me.”

“I do not fail my job, my job does not fail me, thanks to the noodle cart for the past decades, I have been able to support my husband and children to become good people,” she said. Her eldest son and stepdaughter have graduated and have been working for many years. Thanks to this noodle cart, she has been able to support her husband and her sick mother in her hometown. And, thanks to this noodle cart, after decades of making a living in Saigon, she has been able to build a more solid house to protect her from the sun and rain.

She said that after selling noodles in Ho Chi Minh City for decades, she has become accustomed to renting a room here. Every time she has to go back to her hometown to attend a funeral or take care of her sick mother for about ten or fifteen days, she misses the city terribly. She misses the poor room where everyone takes care of her, she misses the noodle cart in the familiar alley where she has spent more than half her life making a living...

With eyes filled with the determination and faith of a woman from the Central region, “Quang province”, she said “I will try to stay in this land, stick with this noodle cart, with the job that I have chosen for the past decades until I feel I am no longer healthy enough to sell anymore. Because selling noodle cart is my life, my reason for living.