Ms. Chi's noodle soup, a pot of noodles that feeds 7 mouths, there's no way to sell it out of passion.

Close-up of Ms. Chi's noodle soup, priced at 30,000 VND, full of crab paste, thickly cut Hue sausage - Photo: TO CUONG

Ms. Chi's noodle soup restaurant is located at 314 Pham Van Hai Street, Tan Binh District, formerly familiar to Ho Chi Minh City residents with the name Ong Ta intersection.

This is also a long-standing restaurant in the area. According to the owner, Ms. Chi's noodle soup brand has existed for nearly 30 years.

Old-style vermicelli soup

Unlike Southern vermicelli soups that are modified with blood, snails, pig's feet... Ms. Chi's vermicelli soup has only four simple ingredients: sausage, water spinach, fried tofu and the indispensable ingredient of crab paste.

Explaining this difference, the owner explained that when her family was a farmer, the noodle soup her mother cooked back then only had crab soup caught in the fields and water spinach growing along the ditch, and she also followed this recipe.

The chewy, crunchy gac noodles are also one of the highlights of Ms. Chi's vermicelli soup - Photo: TO CUONG

Later, the restaurant's noodle soup only had Hue sausage and tofu to meet customers' needs, without adding blood, snails, pig's feet... because it would change the flavor of the broth.

Chewy gac noodles, rich broth and flavorful crab pieces are the highlights of Ms. Chi's vermicelli soup.

In addition, instead of cutting the tofu into squares, the restaurant slices it thinly and fries it until golden brown. It tastes very unique, and many customers are so fascinated that they have to order an extra 5,000 VND portion of tofu to "get full".

The shop also sells very well. We only saw Ms. Chi working hard making bowl after bowl without stopping during the entire conversation with Tuoi Tre Online .

Chi's shop usually sells out in just a few hours, and rush hour is when the shop is busiest - Photo: TO CUONG

According to her, the shop opens from 12 noon to 6 pm but usually sells out after just a few hours. Many regular customers working at large companies buy dozens of portions at a time.

On foodie groups on Facebook, just mentioning Ms. Chi's noodle soup will attract many people living in Tan Binh district to praise it. It can be said that this is one of the best quality noodle soups in Ho Chi Minh City in the price range of 30,000 VND.

The truth about the reputation of selling noodle soup because of passion

Another reputation of Ms. Chi's noodle soup that people who have had the chance to visit often pass on to each other is "the owner probably only sells it out of passion".

The reason is that the restaurant is located on the frontage of Pham Van Hai Street, a quite valuable location intersecting with Cach Mang Thang Tam Street, one of the main roads in Ho Chi Minh City, but the price of each bowl of vermicelli soup full of crab soup is only 30,000 VND.

In addition to vermicelli soup, the restaurant also has a very unique rice noodle soup - Photo: TO CUONG

According to regular customers, before the pandemic, the price of a bowl only fluctuated from 20,000 to 25,000 VND, but after the social distancing period, the price fluctuated and increased to 30,000 VND and has remained until now.

When hearing the name "selling for passion", Ms. Chi just smiled and said: "A pot of noodles feeds seven mouths, there's no such thing as selling for fun".

The reason she sells her shop cheap is because she was lucky to have a piece of residential land left to her by her grandparents, so she doesn't have to pay rent to do business, so she doesn't need to raise the price.

According to the owner, there was a time when the shop was closed for nearly ten years, renting out the space to avoid hardship, but in the end she decided to sell it because she missed the job.

"I thought we were closed and all the customers had forgotten about us, but when we reopened, it was still as crowded as usual" - Ms. Chi said with a laugh.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/canh-bun-co-chi-noi-bun-nuoi-7-mieng-an-lam-gi-co-chuyen-ban-vi-dam-me-20240619055930004.htm