HANOI – About 500 meters from Hoan Kiem Lake is a hot cassava sweet soup shop owned by Ms. Thuy, 82 years old, who has been serving customers for nearly 20 years.
When winter comes, many people in Hanoi go to shops selling hot snacks to “fight” the cold. Located right next to the gate of Tran Phu High School, on Nguyen Khac Can Street, about 500 meters from Hoan Kiem Lake, Ms. Ho Thi Thuy’s cassava sweet shop is a familiar address, loved by many people.
Although she is 82 years old this year, Ms. Thuy still sells tea from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. every day. In the summer, she sells cold sweet soups to cool down such as black bean sweet soup, green beans, and lotus seeds. When winter comes, she switches to selling cassava sweet soup, black bean sweet soup, and hot grandmother’s sweet sweet soup.
For many older people, cassava is a food associated with a time when “rice was not enough, clothes were not warm enough”, Ms. Thuy said. Currently, living standards have improved, but many people still remember the taste of cassava sweet soup as if recalling the past period of lack of food and clothing.
Her stall is located on the sidewalk, in the right corner of the gate of Tran Phu high school, with no roof and no sign. Diners are recognized by the charcoal stove covered with a thin sheet of corrugated iron. On the stove is a pot of water and a tray of tea placed inside the pot to keep it hot by boiling it over water.
“If you put cooked tea directly on the stove, the tea will crack and burn at the bottom,” Ms. Thuy explained.
This year, the weather is not yet cold so she hasn’t cooked Ba Cot sweet soup (glutinous rice sweet soup cooked with ginger and molasses). Therefore, out of three trays of sweet soup, Ms. Thuy uses two trays to hold cassava sweet soup because this is currently the best-selling dish. The remaining tray contains black bean soup.
Every day, Mrs. Thuy prepares to cook sweet soup from around 5am. After peeling fresh cassava, it is soaked in water for about 2-3 hours to remove the resin. Then the cassava is washed and boiled with water, adding a little salt until cooked, then taken out and sliced into bite-sized pieces.
The water of cassava sweet soup is cooked from a mixture of water and apricot sugar. Boil the mixture until the mixture boils and the sugar dissolves. Mrs. Thuy added the chopped cassava and boiled for another 4-5 minutes. Finally, mix tapioca starch with water and then slowly pour into the pot of tea, stirring while pouring until the pot of tea thickens, has a thick consistency.
The way to cook cassava sweet soup is simple but requires meticulousness and experience. “While cooking, you must constantly keep an eye on the fire so that the cassava is cooked until it is not crumbly or mushy. When cooking sweet soup, keep the heat high and the pot of sweet soup will easily burn and crack,” she said. Ms. Thuy’s daughter also tried to cook sweet soup for her mother, but the taste was not up to par, so she is still the seller.
Hot cassava sweet soup is served in small porcelain bowls, with fresh coconut fibers sprinkled on top. A bowl of hot cassava sweet soup Mrs. Thuy sells for 15,000 VND.
At first glance, cassava sweet soup is quite similar to banh troi tau because the white cassava balls are wrapped in a golden brown broth, with a sweet aroma and a hint of ginger.
The cassava pieces are smaller in size than the banh troi balls. Cooked until they are cooked, they retain their consistency when chewed in the mouth without becoming crumbly. Using a spoon to scoop it up, the thick sugar water blends into the cassava pieces, pulling them into threads amid the smoke emanating from the still hot bowl of sweet soup.
Ms. Dang Thu Quyen (left), lives and works in Hanoi, has been a customer of the restaurant for nearly 3 years. Having eaten cassava sweet soup at some other shops, she still comes back to Mrs. Thuy’s shop because “the sweet soup has a unique aroma, the cassava is soft and supple, the taste is nutty and the sugar water is moderately sweet”.
Her work place is close to the restaurant, so she and her colleagues often stop by the restaurant after lunch to enjoy hot cassava tea and chat.
Diners can also order sweet soup to enjoy the combination of the softness and texture of cassava and the sweetness and richness of black beans. This is also a dish chosen by many regular customers of the restaurant.
About two years ago, Ms. Thuy had many regular customers who were employees working in the surrounding area, so she needed more people to help sell the shop. After companies and agencies moved addresses, customers coming to the shop decreased. Currently, mainly students and employees, on weekends there are more tourists walking in the walking street area around Hoan Kiem Lake.
Mrs. Thuy is old and her children are stable. She doesn’t put too much emphasis on profit and profit. Every day, she only cooks a pot of cassava sweet soup, a pot of black bean sweet soup, and a little green bean sweet soup, selling it until 3:00 p.m. Diners coming to the restaurant can park their cars in the parking area about 30 meters away from the restaurant, then choose a seat around the kitchen, hold a bowl of hot cassava sweet soup in their hands and enjoy.
($1~24,000 VND)
Photo,Video: Internet (Vinlove.net)