With familiar dishes such as lotus root salad with shrimp and meat, rolls, spring rolls and islet hotpot, the restaurant in Binh Thanh district is always full of more than 100 tables whether it’s sunny or rainy.
At 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, heavy rain. At the beginning of Nguyen Xi Street, Ward 13, a hot pot restaurant is still crowded with customers. Oanh, diners from Thu Duc City and more than 6 friends are eating hot pot, and sharing, the shop is the “intestinal” address of the group. “Need a place to eat delicious, cheap, we all come here. This place sells rustic dishes, family-style, and parties in the West. My favorite is islet hot pot with a lot of vegetables, meat, pork intestines, Sweet broth is very tasty”, Oanh joked, every time she comes to the shop, she feels like she is eating an old wedding party.
The restaurant’s manager, Diem My, born in 1992, in Ca Mau, said that the restaurant has been open for nearly 2 years, specializing in serving Western dishes that often appear in old parties that guests rarely see now, such as islet hotpot. , rolls, spring rolls, lotus root salad with shrimp and meat…
“In my hometown, on every occasion of weddings, weddings, and banquets, there is always a smoking hot pot on the island, rolls, salads… but now less and less. I want to keep the traditional and familiar dishes. of the homeland, should open a shop”, I said, this is her decision after quitting her office job with a salary of more than 20 million VND.
Every day, the restaurant staff starts at 7 am to clean vegetables, and ingredients and cook islet hot pot broth, fish hot pot, Thai hot pot. Standing in the kitchen are My mother and family members. Talking about the restaurant’s “nail” dish, the islet hot pot, Ms. Le said: “At a wedding in the old Ca Mau, the groom’s family went to the girl’s house to bring a live pig to make a tray. After dissecting and butchering the meat. After that, they thought of how to make a sweet hot pot from coconut water stewed with bones, the main ingredient is pork intestines, including heart, liver, phoenix, lungs, tongue .. . and lean meat, add vegetables, almost 20 ingredients in a hot pot”.
In addition, the old party also had wrap rolls, the dish looks simple but sophisticated and meticulous. Ingredients include shrimp, pork loin, hearing, peanuts, pork skin, cabbage, herbs, carrots, chopped and then mixed, seasoned to taste, firmly wrapped into rolls and then cut into bite-sized pieces. . The dish is soft and has the crispiness of vegetables, pork skin, fragrant smell, and meat. There are very few restaurants serving this dish.
On the day of opening the shop, I did not think that there would be a day as crowded as today, every day more than 100 tables filled with people and hundreds of hotpots were sold. “When I changed jobs, I thought that if I failed, I would also have money in and out of the field, enough to live on. But being supported by everyone like now is great luck for me,” I said of her secret. is to keep the taste of Western dishes, the price is reasonable, and each person holding a few tens of thousands can come and eat hot pot comfortably.
The shop sells on-site from 16:00 to 22:00 every day, in the morning only for takeout. On Saturdays and Sundays, it can be overcrowded, customers have to wait in line or the shop stops accepting customers for 20-30 minutes. In addition, customers coming to the shop are mainly young people, families riding motorbikes, no parking space is also a limitation.
Minh Nhien, Binh Thanh district, used to come during rush hour and had to return because there were no tables to sit at. “My experience is that everyone should go early, around 5pm there will be many empty and comfortable tables. The food here is delicious, cheap and the staff is friendly, so I decided to come back again to eat islet hotpot. “, Nhien said.
