In addition to the “addictive” sweet soup, Ms. Mai has been holding customers for the past 45 years with a humorous way of talking and a close image when wearing the shirt she sells sweet soup every day.
Mrs. Mai wears a shirt that she sells sweet soup every day.PHOTO: LE HONG HANH
“Pleasure and delightful … Mrs. Mai’s smile”
Many people living on Le Quang Dinh Street (Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City) are familiar with Ms. Mai’s sweet soup bag (63 years old). Regularly at 10:00 a.m. every day, Ms. Mai will push her cart to 66 Le Quang Dinh, and sell sweet soup and cake falling in the mist.
Time flies quickly, Ms. Mai has more than 45 years of selling sweet soup, carrying her sweet soup in a cool corner under the shade of a tree. Leaving Phan Dang Luu Street (Phu Nhuan District) busy with traffic, when turning into Le Quang Dinh Street (Phu Nhuan District) to find Ms. Mai’s sweet soup shop, the writer felt much more comfortable because the road was less traffic. Again, no traffic jams and shady trees.
 Many people go to the market and stop by the tea shop before going homePHOTO: LE HONG HANH |
With the roadside stalls, noon is probably a sunny hour. However, on the contrary, Ms. Mai’s sweet soup bag seems to be even more crowded at noon. Office workers stopped by to have a cup of sweet soup to cool down, people at Ba Chieu market also stopped by to sip a cup of sweet soup … to cool off before leaving.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Loan (living in Thu Duc District) hurriedly pulled her motorbike to the side and stopped at Ms. Mai’s sweet soup shop, as usual, she ate a cup of sweet soup … mixed with dew, pomegranate seeds, green beans , black beans, coconut milk. As she ate, she and Mrs. Mai chatted loudly about children, about shopping, and crunchy laughter scattered all over the corner.
 Mrs. Mai has a very bright smilePHOTO: LE HONG HANH |
“I have been eating sweet soup here for so long that I don’t remember when I ate it, Mai has been selling here for a long time. If we don’t go, we have to go to Ba Chieu market to eat a cup of sweet soup, but just like to eat well. Maybe because I am old, I like to eat something sweet and cool, becoming a habit ”, Mrs. Loan confided.
 From adults to children, they love to eat Ms. Mai’s teaPHOTO: LE HONG HANH |
Ms. Mai confided that because the sweet soup load was small, there were only a few small plastic chairs to sit on, so visitors to the sweet soup shop were mostly patrons. Indeed, sitting and eating sweet soup at the restaurant, regardless of the guest, she will talk to Mrs.
Mai as close as a family member. Seeing me struggling to take pictures of Ms. Mai, a guest who was building a car waiting for Ms. Mai to bring her sweet soup to say: “Your aunt Mai is so cute, she often laughs at her, so she can capture her everyday moments. , the guests who liked Ms.
Mai laughed so much for her to be famous ”. A young boy rode his bicycle into the alley rushed back out to buy sweet soup. Handing a bag of sweet soup to the boy, Mrs. Mai gently instructed the boy on how to pour sweet soup into a cup and then ice.
Selling sweet soup to feed her granddaughter in college
To have a cup of sweet soup “satisfying” the appetite of customers, every day, Ms. Mai gets up from 4 o’clock to cook and sell. The cake is made from rice flour and the color of pineapple leaves. Mai said making pomegranate seeds takes the most effort. In addition to pancakes, Ms. Mai also sells green bean sweet soup and black beans, but the favorite dish of many diners is still the cake with full ingredients. Each cup of sweet soup is only 15,000 VND.
 Ms. Mai’s guests are mostly patronsPHOTO: LE HONG HANH |
The business does not take days and especially Ms. Mai always wears her father’s shirt to sell sweet soup every day. “At home, I wear the clothes, but when I go to sell, I replace my father, my habits from the past have not changed,” she said.
Not only that, Mrs. Mai sells sweet soup in front of an old Saigon- style DVD shop, and I wonder if anyone still listens to music on DVDs nowadays, Ms. Mai explained, she said that in the past she had many shops selling music. tapes and discs in Saigon later collected and sold here, there have been people who come to buy for a while.
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 When sold out, Mrs. Mai will go homePHOTO: LE HONG HANH |
“For such a long time but no change at all, I still feel the same, this street is not much different from the old days, the houses have been rebuilt a lot, but most of them are also houses. The house is as old as the other tiled house for a long time, ”she confided.Ms. Mai is from Saigon because her family is poor, so she makes a living from a young age, selling all kinds of things to make money.
By the age of 18, she switched to selling sweet soup. After getting married, having children and grandchildren, carrying a lot of goods is still attached to helping her make a living.“If you sell them all, you can get rich from where you want to live. In the past, when raising three children, I still raise a daughter who is in college, I hope that after graduating from school she can support herself, I am very happy ”, she confided.Follow Thanh Nien Online