HO CHI MINH CITY – Chuyen Ky Rice Shop has been open for sale since 1948, keeping the traditional recipe of cooking rice in a bowl, steaming it for 30 minutes.
On Ton That Dam Street, District 1, there is a Chinese noodle shop named Chuyen Ky which is quite famous in Saigon. This is a place that sells authentic Cantonese Chinese home dishes. The shop has been open for sale since 1948, now managed by Mrs. My My and Thuy Thuy, passed down from generation to generation.
Mrs. My said, the family’s rice dish in Chinese is called “Chung Phuong”, which is generally a bowl, and rice is “rice”. The cooking method has remained the same for more than 7 decades and has not changed. Rice is put into each bowl of rice, then added water, steamed in a steamer. Each steaming basket can hold about 80 bowls of rice, steamed for about 30 minutes, the rice is cooked, emitting smoke and a delicate aroma. “Cooking in a bowl, the rice is soft, supple and the rice grains are delicious, and when eaten, the rice retains its heat longer,” said Mrs. My.
The restaurant has the style of a family restaurant, outside is the sign “Chyen Ky rice restaurant” hand-painted with paint on bricks, a very popular sign decoration of Saigon restaurants before 1975 and later, the era. when there is no technique to make signs by machine. Inside, the shop has about 5-6 stainless steel tables and high plastic chairs, on the wall are small blue-tiled tiles over 1 m high, kept intact from 1970 to the present. The shop’s old tools are still the rice bowls that were ordered from a pottery kiln in Binh Duong decades ago but are no longer produced.
In the 90s of the last century, a group of Japanese guests visited the restaurant to have a meal and then record it on foreign television, since then the restaurant has become more known to the international community. “They filmed from the inside out, from the way I cook and prepare the food to the ingredients for cooking such as Northern medicine, evil chicken… they all filmed it. Later, the customers who came to the restaurant told me that They knew how the restaurant was,” Mrs. My recalled.
Customers coming to the restaurant often order chicken pot rice, beef sausage rice bowl with white rice below, and a filling of meat that is steamed according to the traditional recipe. Guests can order more side dishes from the menu of nearly 100 dishes cooked from chicken, beef, shrimp, fish, crab, squid, sausage, pork kidney…, stewed, fried… priced from 60,000 to 180,000 VND per portion for 2-3 people to eat. With stews and stews, the restaurant will cook first and then keep it hot in the steamer, while the rest are made fresh, some guests call a new chef to start making the food, so the food always stays hot and delicious.
Because it is sold in a family-style, most customers come to the restaurant in groups, while alone customers often pay 100,000-250,000 VND for a bowl of chicken or beef sausage, served with 1-2 dishes. Some people commented that the price of rice here is quite high compared to the common ground. Mrs. My My explained: “I sell at a reasonable price and quality because each portion is for 2-3 people to eat, it’s very beneficial for guests to go in large numbers, not as expensive as people say.”
Taking over her grandmother’s long-standing shop, Mrs. My was both happy and worried: “I like this job, I like to sell rice even though it’s very hard and must be very careful. Selling Chinese food is important to know how to mix dishes. must understand what the customer likes to eat, how to mix it, what chicken is mixed with vegetables, what meat is mixed with vegetables, the soup too. but the introduction is that it has to be really delicious for people to come back to eat at my restaurant,” My My shared.
After many months of social distancing, Chuyen Ky restaurant has just reopened. Mrs. My said she feels lucky that she still has the support of diners, the hours are still the same as before, but the number of customers she cannot predict because so many things have changed. The restaurant is open for sale from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily, there is a motorbike parking space in front of the restaurant for guests.
