Chua Hang Street is famous for its pate, which is a favorite nightlife of Hai Phong people.
Walking along the main streets in Hanoi, you can easily see shops with the sign “Pate Lamp Pole Hai Phong”. Actually, this is not a brand. Pillar Lamp Pate is a general term for pate at the Pole Light Market, now Chua Hang Street (Le Chan District, Hai Phong City). Hai Phong Department of Tourism has put the Pillar Light pate on the list of Hai Phong Culinary Map, introducing diners to dishes that should not be missed when coming to the port city.
Every day, at around 7pm, on Chua Hang Street, people used to call it with the old name of the market, and the smell of hot pate is fragrant. Along the street are shops and stalls selling pate with different recipes and flavors. Famous for a long time and introduced by the people living on Chua Hang Street, the pate bread shop is located at 1 Chua Hang, the intersection with To Hieu Street.
No signboard, no decorative led lights or a spacious facade, but Mrs. Nghia’s pate shop (57 years old) is always crowded and is a famous nightlife address that is loved by many people in the center of Hai Phong city. Mrs. Nghia is the second generation to take over the shop, open for sale from 19:00 to 4:00 the next morning.
Ms. Nghia said pate and bread are produced in the family factory. Pate is poured into aluminum trays, butter and shrimp paste in bowls and plates with the right amount. A special feature is that the moisture of the pate is made up of a layer of fat placed on the bottom of the pot, simmered for about 6 hours with a layer of ground mixture from meat and pork liver sprinkled on top. The layer of fat dissolves gradually from the bottom to the top, making the mixture not dry but not too greasy like when grinding a lot of fatty meat with liver and meat from the beginning. Pate has been seasoned according to its own recipe to taste when eaten with bread or other foods.
Ms. Nghia used a knife to act quickly, from slicing bread lengthwise, spreading margarine, adding pate and coating homemade meatloaf on top. In less than a minute, diners had full pate bread in their hands.
Nguyen Dinh Hoang Khanh (HCMC) on a visit to Hai Phong to try Column Lamp pate, mistakenly thought this was a spicy bread. Many other diners are also confused because the bread size of the two types is smaller than regular bread and both have pate. In fact, the pole light pate bread is about twice as big as the spicy bread, with more pate inside, and the pate is also a softer, softer type, Ms. Nghia said.
Lamppost pate bread is larger than spicy bread and smaller than regular bread.
The ingredients to make Lamp Pillar pate bread.
Mrs. Nghia (on the left of the photo) is making bread pate.
Lamppost pate bread is larger than spicy bread and smaller than regular bread.
The ingredients to make Lamp Pillar pate bread.
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In the past few years, the shop has sold more pate dumplings according to the suggestions and needs of customers. How to make pate dumplings is similar to bread, priced at 15,000 VND each.($1=24,000 VND)
The shop has a small area, 4 stainless steel tables for 4 people lined up close together, covered with canvas on four sides, so the space is a bit mysterious. Right from the opening sale, many people have come to the shop to buy bread and pate dumplings, mainly to take home. Regular customers usually just need to park their car next to the restaurant and order, wait a few minutes to have their food brought back without getting off the car. Normally, by 19:00, the inner city streets are less crowded, but the intersection of Chua Hang Street and To Hieu Street is still crowded with people and cars coming to buy bread, making the traffic in the area a bit messy.
At the weekend, Mrs. Nghia’s shop can sell up to two quintals of pate due to an increase in food tour customers and foreign tourists returning to Hai Phong. Quoc Hung, a student at a university in Hanoi, went to Mrs. Nghia’s shop to buy 190 sandwiches. Hung was introduced by a classmate from Hai Phong to buy as a gift and buy for friends.
The pate bread is soft, not crispy like spicy bread. The pate is greasy from the meat, fat and flesh of the pork liver, just right, more moist than the pate used in spicy bread but not too wet. The softness and smoothness of the pate is added to the slight toughness of the meat, a little bit of chili sauce. Diners should slowly enjoy to feel the taste.
The shop also sells fresh pate with the price of a 500 gram box is 110,000 VND. Customers who want to buy in bulk need to call in advance. On average, a person usually eats about 2-3 pate bread. Compared to the common ground, the level of 30,000-45,000 VND is reasonable for a night meal in Hai Phong city.