This Cantonese restaurant has served four generations of customers.

This restaurant has been around for over a lifetime.

The sounds of customers ordering, waiters calling into the kitchen, stainless steel tables and chairs hastily arranged to welcome diners, and the cheerful laughter of the owner chatting with familiar customers... Every day, around 12 noon, the small 40-square-meter space of Chuyen Ky rice bowl restaurant becomes bustling like this, and this continues until the end of the lunch break.

If you're a young customer, I believe you won't like the service style here. Your order will be taken by one of the two owners, Ms. My My and Ms. Thuy Thuy. Your order is rarely written down, which might make those used to conventional service worry that their order will be incomplete. But no, there has never been a case of missing an item at this restaurant. This somewhat chaotic atmosphere might be unfamiliar to many young customers, but it's actually one of the essential elements that makes up the "culture" of this restaurant, which is over 70 years old.

Chuyen Ky's clay pot rice is no longer a stranger to Saigonese people, because how many eateries have survived for seven decades? The restaurant's appeal, which makes people talk about it repeatedly, lies not only in the 70 years but also in what it has witnessed throughout an entire lifetime.

"Chung phan" (rice in a clay pot, pronounced in Cantonese) is the characteristic cooking method of this dish. Rice is placed in a clay pot, enough water is added, and then it is steamed. This complex and time-consuming cooking method no longer exists because nowadays diners need something quick, convenient, delicious, and high-quality to eat. The food here is also not prepared in advance; the chefs only start cooking when customers order, so it's very common to see tables waiting for 25-30 minutes for their food.

"We just want to preserve the family recipe passed down from my grandmother's generation," explained the owner when asked why they still maintain this cooking method. Chuyen Ky, taking the name Chuyen from Ly Chuyen, is also the grandmother of Ms. My and Ms. Thuy.

Speaking in broken, somewhat exaggerated but cheerful and relaxed Vietnamese, the two women said, "Chuyên Ký Tửu Lầu" has been a famous eatery among Saigon residents since the 1960s, employing dozens of staff. Back then, only their maternal grandparents ran the restaurant, and they were sent to "learn the trade" from small tasks like picking vegetables and washing dishes. By 1994, when their grandmother passed away, they had accumulated around 20 years of experience and subsequently became the owners of the restaurant.

That's also how the helpers have stayed with the restaurant. Ms. My shared that Chuyen Ky currently has few servers, but those who remain are people who have been with the restaurant for nearly several decades. Those who helped with tasks like picking vegetables, washing dishes, and serving... have worked from generation to generation, understanding the cooking methods and being promoted to head chef or sous chef positions. Their children also continue the "profession" of helping out at the restaurant.

For several years now, Mrs. My has been ill. One of her former customers, who had been a regular at the shop since their school days, is now the head of a department at a large hospital and has also become her treating physician. And so, Chuyen Ky has been there, witnessing the growth and transformation of its customers, as well as the dramatic changes in Saigon itself.

Things that never change

Every day, the two women wake up at 5 am to prepare the ingredients for a day's cooking. The ingredients used to make the dishes at Chuyen Ky don't come from any expensive or faraway places; they are sourced right in the Old Market area (Ton That Dam Street) or, at most, Cau Muoi Market, markets that have existed in Saigon for decades.

The menu at Chuyen Ky remains exactly the same as it was decades ago. Dishes like beef and sausage rice bowls, lotus root soup, shrimp with pâté, or braised pork belly... are still ordered daily and have never changed in flavor or preparation throughout all this time.

Around noon, the busiest time, each steamer can operate at full capacity, steaming 80 bowls of rice in 30 minutes. There are about 3-4 people in the kitchen taking turns cooking, but the work never stops. Whenever a customer orders, the server simply takes a steaming bowl of rice from the steamer, adds the toppings, and brings it out. Even dishes that don't require special cooking methods like stir-frying are prepared by steaming, such as braised or stewed chicken.

When asked about their family secrets, the two women didn't hide anything because there were really no special secrets. Things like mixing Tài Nguyên rice and Nàng Thơm rice to get bowls of rice that are neither too dry nor too mushy, or using duck eggs instead of chicken eggs in their stew to create a more harmonious flavor... they shared all of this very freely.

The rice, cooked in a clay pot, is evenly cooked; a few grains around the rim are slightly dry, but that's normal with this cooking method. The toppings are placed on top; if you want to eat it directly, carefully scoop it down with a spoon, or if you're worried about spillage, you can pour it all into a larger bowl. The broth from the meat is seasoned just right and permeates the white rice, giving it a light and refreshing taste that's very delicious.

Times change, and prices have also changed somewhat, but generally speaking, a meal at Chuyen Ky currently costs only between 50,000 and 70,000 VND per person. The restaurant is only open during two time slots: from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM and from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM, primarily serving lunch and dinner.

And so, the dishes at Chuyen Ky gradually became a habit for diners because of their familiar, home-cooked feel. Once, the two women hosted a family returning from abroad. The child in that family, whom the two women had "scolded" years ago to eat, was now over 40, bringing his children and grandchildren to greet them. Or there are customers who have been regulars at the restaurant since their grandparents' and parents' generations, visiting every few months, seeking out the same corner, and ordering the same dishes. Or there are customers who left Vietnam to settle elsewhere, and upon returning, they insist on having dinner at Chuyen Ky.

The ups and downs of a "historical" eatery.

Over the years, it's easy to see that Chuyen Ky has also experienced periods of prosperity, followed by controversies. Ms. My recounted that around the 1990s, a group of Japanese tourists visited the restaurant and filmed a documentary for a foreign television channel, which helped the restaurant gain more recognition.

In the 2000s, Chuyen Ky seemed to be at its peak, attracting countless foreign tourists. They came partly out of curiosity about the dishes, and partly because of the generations-old stories shared on social media.

During that time, the restaurant was so crowded that even with the rice steamers working at full capacity, there still wasn't enough rice to sell. So the two women decided to cook rice the traditional way, as that was the only way to ensure enough portions. But that turned out to be a terrible mistake, as customers who had come for the unique rice cooked in a clay pot couldn't hide their disappointment when the rice they tasted was no different from... ordinary rice.

That was also when Chuyen Ky faced some controversy. People whispered that Chuyen Ky no longer maintained its traditional cooking style. This put immense pressure on the two owners. But then, the storm passed. Everything returned to balance. Chuyen Ky's steamers still produce delicious, fragrant, and sweet rice, maintaining the reputation of this restaurant that is over 70 years old.

There were times when things got too difficult, and the two women considered closing the shop, but it wasn't easy to give up something that had become a habit and a source of joy for them since childhood. They shared that they could stop the business and rent out the space for 50 million VND per month, but they've been putting it off for a long time. Ms. Thuy "begged" her sister to let them continue operating for a few more years, until the Old Market is demolished.

Le Ho Uy Di - Photo: Piero