“Giving up a good job in Hanoi to return to my hometown was a very big decision. At that time, I cried a lot, felt confused and often wondered if I could do it or not?
But now, every time I stand behind the counter and see the number of customers coming to the restaurant as crowded as when my mother was alive, I feel very happy. It is not just a restaurant, it is also a place to preserve the memories, heritage and love of 3 generations of women in a family", Doan Nhat Linh (born in 1998) shared.
Family legacy
Nhat Linh is the third generation to take over the 45-year-old traditional pate sandwich shop on Ly Thuong Kiet Street, Nam Dinh Ward, Ninh Binh Province (old Nam Dinh City).
The shop was founded and opened by Mrs. Lau - Nhat Linh's grandmother in the 1980s. Later, she passed on the pate sandwich recipe to all 5 children. Linh's mother continued the profession and developed it into a famous brand.
For decades, Linh’s family’s pate sandwiches have been constantly crowded, sometimes “sold out” and had to close early. The restaurant has even become one of the famous dining addresses, attracting both locals and tourists from all over to enjoy.
Linh's family's traditional pate sandwich shop is one of the familiar dining addresses of people in Nam Dinh ward.
However, a year ago, tragedy struck. On a trip back to her hometown for Qingming Festival, Linh’s mother unfortunately had a traffic accident and passed away. The sandwich shop and the lives of the two sisters were turned upside down.
“My father passed away when I was 13 years old, and my sister was 4 years old. My mother passed away just 3 days before my engagement ceremony. The incident and grief almost exhausted me,” Nhat Linh confided.
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Linh took a photo with her grandmother (left) and mother - 2 generations of women in the family who built and developed the famous delicious pate sandwich.
To support her younger sister, Linh tried her best to continue her job in Hanoi. She handed over the sandwich shop to her aunt.
At that time, 9X was working in the media industry and held the position of Community Leader at a large media company with an income of about 20 million VND/month.
In addition, she also takes advantage of extra jobs in the evenings or on weekends, while developing media channels and earning additional revenue from advertising.
“At first, I tried to keep myself busy and buried myself in work to ease the pain. After a year, I realized that if I didn’t return to my hometown and continue the family tradition that my grandmother and mother had built up over many years, that dish would gradually disappear.
With that thought in mind, I decided to give up a good job with a stable income in Hanoi to return to my hometown," Linh said.
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27-year-old girl quits high-paying job in Hanoi to return to her hometown to continue her family's tradition of making pate sandwiches after her parents passed away.
Famous delicacies of Thanh Nam
In the first days of running the shop, Linh was assisted by an uncle who had worked with the family for many years.
Linh's husband - Hai Long (born in 1998) also gave up his job as a software testing expert in the field of information technology at a foreign company to support and accompany his wife in business activities.
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Traditional pate of Nhat Linh family
Linh’s day starts at 4am. She takes the time to prepare ingredients and make pate according to the recipe her mother and grandmother left behind. Each batch of pate is made and seasoned by hand, then steamed until soft for 6-8 hours.
“The ingredients for making pate must be clean and the finished product must not contain preservatives. The bread is specially ordered from our familiar oven. The crust is crispy, not crumbly, and the inside is dense, with the aroma of traditional baking powder,” Linh said.
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Crispy, dense bread with rich, fatty filling
As the eldest daughter, she has helped her mother cook and can pate since she was a child, but the 9X girl admitted that she never learned proper cooking experience from her family. Therefore, when taking over the family business, the 27-year-old girl had to experiment, experiment with each batch of pate, and then learn how to run the restaurant, communicate, and serve customers.
Pate is divided into small boxes, carefully packaged for customers to take home or transport to some neighboring provinces.
There were days when Linh only slept a few hours, cooking, cleaning, and calculating every small expense.
Even when each batch of pate is "baked", Linh and her husband have to eat a few to directly feel and evaluate the flavor, see the balance and adjust to suit the customer's taste.
“This job is really hard and tiring, but it is a pleasant kind of tiredness when the shop is crowded and I sell a lot of products, sometimes even running out of dishes early.
I know the road ahead is still full of challenges, but I believe I'm on the right track and my parents are always watching over me," the 9X girl expressed.
Diners visit the restaurant not only because of the impressive taste of the pate sandwich but also because of the cozy, familiar feeling, like finding their childhood again.
Although there are many places to eat delicious and cheap bread in Nam Dinh ward, Linh's family's pate bread shop still has a large and long-standing customer base. The shop opens from 13:30 to 22:00 but is often crowded with customers coming to buy take-out and eat on the spot.
There are days when Linh and her husband sell out several hundred loaves of bread in just half an hour.
At the shop, each sandwich costs 15,000 VND (with shredded onion filling), and 20,000 VND with an egg. There are two types of canned pate with different weights: 500gr box costs 130,000 VND and 1kg box costs 260,000 VND.
Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/co-gai-bo-viec-luong-cao-ve-ninh-binh-noi-nghiep-ban-mon-gia-truyen-45-nam-2418418.html
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