Buy a house for billions with a duck egg shop selling more than 4,000 eggs a day

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After 12 years of selling duck eggs in Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Van bought a house in Long An for her family to use as a place to “cover from the sun and rain”. The country girl’s biggest dream came true by selling eggs.

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Ms. Van bought a house after more than 10 years of selling duck eggs in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: Huyen My).

Born in a poor family in Vinh Long, from a young age, Hong Van (38 years old) followed her relatives to Ho Chi Minh City to earn a living. Initially, because she did not have a job, Ms. Van went to sell fried noodles on the roadside in District 3.

In 2010, when her work was going smoothly, Ms. Van was confiscated by the urban order and lost all her capital. Sadly, she had to sell lottery tickets to earn money for her family, but the income from selling lottery tickets was not enough for her to support her family. 

After losing sleep for a whole week because she thought about making a living, Ms. Van took a risk to borrow money to buy an extra car to carry peanuts to peddlers. However, making money in the city has never been easy, one day Ms. Van sold only a few eggs, not having enough capital. There are rainy nights, the country girl can only eat eggs except rice to feel less sad. 

A few months later, thanks to her efforts and perseverance, Ms. Van’s duck seeds from the beginning sold only a few dozen per night, then the number increased to hundreds. The money from selling eggs was enough to support her family, so Van stopped selling lottery tickets and opened an egg shop on the sidewalk.

Up to now, after more than 10 years of falling in love with scrambled eggs, Van’s egg shop on Ban Co Street, District 3 can sell 4,000-5,000 eggs per day every day.

Not only has a stable income, Ms. Van also creates jobs for many poor students to take advantage of working part-time in the evening. 

“For about 4 years now, many dear customers have come to support, so the shop is getting more and more crowded. In 2021, thanks to selling duck eggs, I prospered and bought a house in Long An. Now I still work diligently to work alone. raising two young children and an elderly mother in the countryside,” said the shop owner happily.

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Eggs are imported by Ms. Van from Vinh Long, carefully selected and steamed with coconut water (Photo: Huyen My).

According to Ms. Van, from 4:30 a.m. every day, her whole family had to get up to import eggs from Vinh Long. All eggs are carefully selected, priority is to choose eggs that are incubated for 16-18 days because the scrambled eggs have passed the “golden” time when eaten, they will have a bitter taste. 

Compared to other shops, the eggs at Ms. Van’s are boiled with fresh coconut water, adding a little salt so that when eating, customers will feel the fatty aroma from the inside out. When boiled eggs are cooked, they continue to be steamed with fresh ginger to stay hot and fragrant. 

Many diners share, when coming to eat Ms. Van’s duck eggs, in addition to the plus point of soft eggs, the faint aroma of coconut water, the accompanying cup of pureed salt is also the highlight. 

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The secret to making a separate dip made many customers support Ms. Van (Photo: Huyen My).

Sharing the secret to making dipping sauce, Ms. Van said, the shop uses pure granulated salt mixed with Dak – Lak pepper, shrimp salt and some other basic spices. Everything is mixed well and then brought to a puree, smooth. This recipe helps the salt not to be too salty, but also brings out the pungent aroma of pepper and comes with a sour taste.

“When eating duck eggs, we will feel the taste of fresh coconut water, followed by the flavor of ginger and the fat of duck eggs mixed with the sour, spicy and salty taste of the pureed kumquat salt mixture. One or two leaves of laksa leaves will feel the distinct, unmistakable taste of this rustic dish,” introduced Ms. Van.

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Each boiled egg costs 8,000 VND (Photo: Huyen My).

In addition to duck eggs, the shop also has fried duck with tamarind, fried quail with tamarind. Tamarind sauce is also made by the owner himself according to a separate recipe, so it has a thick consistency. Fried eggs with tamarind are often served with fried onions mixed with crispy fat and peanuts.

“Tamarind sauce does the most amazing work. Tamarind is selected from ripe fruits, peeled, boiled with sugar and fish sauce. In particular, in this sauce, I do not use MSG or any other flavorings, so The sauce has a special consistency from tamarind,” the shop owner shared.

Ms. Van said that being supported by customers makes her very happy. My dream since childhood was to buy a house as a place to “cover from rain and sun” has come true. In the future, she hopes that the shop will always be crowded so that she can have more money to help her family and the poor. 

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Fried duck eggs and fried quail with tamarind are also popular with many customers (Photo: Huyen My).

“The work is overloaded, so the shop can’t find a long-term assistant. Even though the shop has raised the salary to 25,000 VND/hour, no one can stand it because of the large number of customers,” lamented Ms. Van.

Phan Thi Kim Lien – 24 years old, a student at the University of Food Technology said: “I have been eating duck eggs here since I came to Saigon to study, the advantage of eggs here is that they are fragrant, fatty, and have a thick sauce. The difference is unmistakable. But the downside is that the restaurant is too crowded. Although the restaurant has arranged a trash can for each table, at peak hours, no one has free hands to clean up, I think the restaurant should fix this.”

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