Eating and playing in the true sense includes the rules of eating and enjoying with style, consideration and distinct characteristics, according to the way of enjoyment of the ancient Thang Long people. Hanoians in particular and Vietnamese people in general have a cultured and elegant style of eating and playing.
Although nowadays people often like to follow the latest trends, gradually accepting more freely the mass-produced things, and gradually losing the uniqueness of traditional styles. There are still new generations who desire to restore the systematic eating and playing ways, also consider it as archaeology and preservation of old invisible value systems, bringing that identity to all five continents without being mixed up.
Flavor is the resonance of food and space.
I myself rarely eat snacks, so I just wait for a clear day to rush out to find something sweet after a series of miserable days with storms and rain. I arrived at the shop on a light rainy afternoon, hastily taking the wrong turn in the tangled streets of the old town, causing the journey to take quite a while, going through several blocks one way before leisurely arriving. The small dessert shop named Loc Tai is nestled at 76 Hang Dieu with a facade that if you pass by, no one will pay much attention, but in reality, it easily catches the eye of diners with its old architecture, with a pagoda-roofed cabinet displaying colorful sweets that attract the eyes.
Old architecture, with a pagoda-roofed cabinet displaying colorful sweets that attract the eye
The small dessert shop named Loc Tai is nestled at 76 Hang Dieu.
Surely everyone will wonder about the appearance of this address, that how can still preserve that spirit in the midst of a bustling flow that requires concrete for all constructions. The owner - Ms. Nguyen Thanh Thuy shared that her job of selling sweet soup has been going on for 24 years, but the space of the sweet soup shop in the old style has only been around for about 4 to 5 years.
She said that the essence of the ancient Kinh Ky style is not only cultivated in the menu, but also in the space and the way of treating customers. Her husband is a person who is passionate about pure Vietnamese antiques of high age and every corner of the restaurant has been researched, arranged and created by him, the results of which make contemporary customers surprised. From essentials such as bowls for serving sweet soup, to statues on the table, or colorful towels as a background for the deep brown color; perhaps the only thing that makes Loc Tai not only makes customers full, but also satisfies their eyes.
Hot or cold tea is served in a bowl made of white enamel painted with blue.
The essence of the ancient Kinh Ky style is not only nurtured by her in the menu, but also in the space and the way she treats diners.
The restaurant's menu, which used to only have traditional sweet soups with black beans, red beans, fried green rice, coconut, tapioca pearls, grapefruit flowers... has now expanded with a few modern recipes to suit the tastes, but it is certain that more than half of the guests sitting there have ordered their own traditional choices. Because local diners also love the values that have followed them until now, or when introducing to tourists from all over the world, they also suggest bowls of sweet soup with flavors that only Vietnamese people can make and only in Hanoi; because people tend to be proud of their own unique capital.
Hot or cold sweet soup is served in a bowl made of white enamel painted in blue. Instead of a plastic tray, the owner cherishes the result with collected antique trays. Customers carry their dishes through a narrow staircase to the second floor, neatly sit on rattan sofas placed neatly next to a dark brown wooden cupboard, swing their legs on the old tile floor, leisurely enjoying an afternoon pleasure. The shop can easily be mistaken for a restaurant, but because of that interesting mistake, people adjust the way they eat sweet soup to be more serious, slow, commenting and enjoying the flavor more.
The signature dishes on the restaurant's menu are lotus seed sweet soup with longan, longan wrapped in lotus seed bag, tofu with black sugar pearls, black bean jasmine jelly... For cold days, there is grilled banana sweet soup, hot cassava or banh troi tau.
Customers carry their own dishes through a narrow staircase to the second floor.
Variety of traditional desserts
When young people enjoy "tradition"
Besides the elderly who are connoisseurs of traditional snacks, I realized that the restaurant has a large number of young customers. Among thousands of juices, ice creams, milk teas out there, why do they still choose a “traditional” bowl for an afternoon?
“I have been in Hanoi for a long time, and every time I hear her talk about old memories of Hanoi, it always makes me excited. I am a young person who grew up with Hanoi's snacks, so of course I understand and love traditional delicacies. But what impressed me about the shop was the space, because it is quite rare for sweet soup shops in Hanoi to recreate such an old space,” said Ms. Duong Ngoc Khanh (Dong Da district).
Young people are still passionate about traditional gifts.
When a tangible thing becomes a value system, it naturally becomes a measure of the times. Every generation, every age has a “old day” there, with the cupboard, with the kitchen, with sticky rice, with sweet soup; looking for old feelings, like the way each person, regardless of age, fills up emotions that have gradually faded away. Sweet sweet soup is like a little encouragement, that despite the hardships of life, everyone deserves to have “sweetness” after all the efforts.
Eating snacks or traditional values, even though mixed, or sometimes overwhelmed, but it is still the scent of jasmine, grapefruit flowers, the shimmering light, the beauty of this city. Hanoi may not be a beautiful city, but it is certainly not ugly. Hanoi people are inherently beautiful. The way Hanoi people enjoy still brings richness, lovely like a poem full of musicality.
When something tangible becomes a value system, it naturally becomes the measure of the times.
