Over time, is Cho Lon breakfast still as attractive as before?
An old rice paper shop in Cho Lon in the 1960s - Photo: LIFE
One Sunday morning at the end of the year, following Mr. Tu, nearly 80 years old, living in District 11, to "damp cha" (meaning drinking tea in Cantonese, but also meaning having breakfast) at Thuan Kieu fish hotpot restaurant (190 Hong Bang, District 5), we went from one surprise to another.
Without looking at the menu, he could still order the best dishes here, and even advised us not to order the chrysanthemum Pu-erh tea like many people usually order, but to choose Tieguanyin because that was the best tea in the shop. It turned out that he had a habit of going to tea shops since he was young, and it had not changed for decades. He would go to any newly opened shop or any shop that was crowded. Because he was a regular customer of many tea shops, he was given special bowls in the past.
"Baby carrying adult" to walk
He said that Cha Thoi was a popular restaurant, almost anyone could come in and eat. He still remembered that there was a cyclo driver who came in and only ordered a small black coffee. It turned out that he brought a package of sticky rice to eat, and when he left the restaurant, the sugar jar on the table was half empty because he had secretly scooped sugar to add to the sticky rice.
Many ancient Chinese people met each other early in the morning and asked: “Have you had tea yet?”. In those days, only men and children came to have tea, and women were rarely seen.
In the old tea shops, tea was served for free. Whenever a customer arrived, a waiter would bring a pot of tea and pour it enthusiastically. Another waiter would bring a large bamboo steamer and place on the table snacks such as wontons, dried meatballs, meatball soup, buns, and rice porridge oil. Therefore, the person who poured tea was called “teapot” by the customers, and the person who carried the large steamer was called “lion head”.
According to Mr. Tu, perhaps because Pho Ky was a person of little education, after customers ordered their food, they would announce it loudly to the cook. When customers finished eating and paid, they would describe the characteristics of each customer and the amount to be paid to the cashier so that the customers could go to the counter to pay. A couple coming to eat was often compared by Pho Ky to “lovebirds”, while when the old man carried his grandchild on his shoulder, it was reversed to “a baby carrying an adult”. In general, these were all interesting and rhythmic comparisons.
When he was young and first heard such a rumor, Mr. Tu scolded, "These people are talking nonsense!", but they said it was the slang of the coal miners.
When asked about his memories of the coffee shop, Mr. Quoc in District 11 said that the most enjoyable thing was having his grandfather carry him on his shoulders to go to the coffee shop. And his grandfather also poured a little coffee into a saucer to drink, explaining that doing so would help the coffee cool down quickly and make it easier to drink.
Keep the old restaurant's soul with food
Through the ups and downs of the years, combined with the competition from Hong Kong dim sum introduced in the 1990s, the old, cramped banh mi have been stained with time, preserving the memories of countless people who have passed their golden age but still exist with the years. One of the remaining long-standing banh mi is Tuong Hung Long (190 Hau Giang, District 6, next to Co.op Mart Hau Giang supermarket) with more than 60 years of history.
This shop is run by the Tran family, a Chinese of Chaozhou origin. His children, some help cook noodles, some make dim sum, some make tea and coffee, the whole family works together to run the business, opening the shop every day at 5am. After the old man passed away, for a while this shop was rented to Hong Phat water shop (now opposite Binh Tay market) for business.
After Hong Phat moved away, Mr. Tran's descendants continued to operate the business until now. The shop is still open from 5am to 11am, the menu is still the same with noodles and wontons, meatballs, and dumplings. Although the shop is not as crowded as before, it still has many regular customers, such as Ms. Ngoc, a Chinese woman of Chaozhou origin living on Cao Van Lau Street, District 6, who often comes to buy dumplings.
She loves the thin-skinned, delicious-filled dumplings that her father took her to eat when she was little. Ngoc also added that Mr. Ta, whom she called uncle when he was alive, was also one of the long-time customers of this shop. He has been dead for more than 20 years, but every anniversary of his death, his children and grandchildren come to the shop to buy some of his favorite snacks and bowls of noodles as offerings.
The shop still maintains the old layout, the noodle cooking area is located right at the door, made of cement and tiled, the pot of broth is usually simmered from the previous evening. The only difference is that the old round wooden table has been replaced by a row of stainless steel tables, the wall is tiled to prevent smoke and easy to clean. Notably, the shop still uses a bamboo steamer like before, not an aluminum pot.
Young people like Hong Kong-style breakfast like at Tien Phat restaurant, 18 Ky Hoa, District 5 - Photo: Quang Dinh
Many forms
Society is constantly moving, the Chinese people's taste for tea also gradually changes, so Cho Lon has all kinds of tea bars to serve different audiences. It is worth mentioning that the shops' signs are often called dim sum shops, breakfast shops or tim thunder (meaning dim sum in Cantonese), and are no longer called tea shops.
For example, 259 Hong Bang restaurant (corner of Trieu Quang Phuc street), serves dishes still served in small plates like some old-fashioned cha boi with quite affordable prices of 27,000 VND/plate. Another popular dim sum restaurant that attracts many elderly Chinese people is Trung Mai restaurant located deep in an alley on Phu Dinh street (also known as lantern street, District 5). It is known that the chef here used to work at Ngoc Lan Dinh restaurant, so the dim sum dishes are made in the traditional style.
Young Chinese people like to go to Hong Kong dim sum restaurants or shops because the dim sum in these places is prepared immediately after the order is placed, not pre-made like in the cha boi. Some people think that the cha boi is placed on the table, and if the customer does not eat it, it is removed and served to another customer later, which seems unhygienic.
Many Hong Kong dim sum restaurants have the advantage of dozens of dishes, waiters wearing traditional Chinese clothing, wooden tables, and old furniture, attracting quite a lot of customers. For example, Tien Phat restaurant (18 Ky Hoa, District 5) on Sundays, diners must park their vehicles in the nearby Minh Dao School yard. With nearly 50 Hong Kong dim sum dishes with fresh ingredients, free tea, the restaurant has a delicious rib noodle dish, and prices are on par with dim sum restaurants.
To fully experience the Chinese culture, according to Mr. Vi in District 5, you should go to dim sum restaurants with live Cantonese music such as Thuan Kieu or Cat Tuong (in the District 5 Cultural House) every weekend. If you want to find memories of old dim sum restaurants such as Ngoc Lan Dinh, Dai La Thien, Dong Khanh, Soai Kinh Lam... you should go to Tan Lac Vien (1195 - 1197 Ba Thang Hai, Ward 6, District 11).
This restaurant has been selling dim sum for over 20 years, and still maintains the tradition of using trolleys to serve food to customers, as often seen in Hong Kong movies. Customers are free to choose, finish eating and leave bamboo steamers on the table, and the waiter comes to count the bill.
Businessmen like to have breakfast at the Ngan Dinh restaurant in the Windsor Hotel. There is a Hong Kong businessman who comes here almost every time he has free time, all the waiters know what kind of tea he likes, what kind of breakfast he likes. He also comes here to meet business partners, meet friends, and even interview job applicants on the spot.
The old Cha boi are becoming less and less common, but the Chinese habit of enjoying Dam Cha has not changed. However, it is no longer the privilege of men and children. On holidays, it is easy to see the image of large Chinese families, young and old, enjoying Dam Cha together. So it is not surprising that every Tet holiday, dim sum restaurants such as Phong Lan, Thuan Kieu, Tan Lac Vien, Bay Ky Quan, Cat Tuong... are crowded with customers. For example, Mr. Vy has a seven-day Tet holiday, and for six days he goes to Dam Cha, except for the first day of the year when he eats vegetarian food.
The image of old people sitting with one foot on the ground, the other on a chair, sipping coffee from a saucer at wooden tables, surrounded by the cheerful calls of food ordering and bill calculation, the clinking of dishes and chopsticks, and the lively chatter of diners create a unique space that is hard to miss, a place of the old Cha Thoi in Cho Lon that is gradually fading into the past. Ten years from now, will the new generation still know what Cha Thoi is?
“The Hainanese people in China were mainly fishermen. After migrating to Vietnam, they became merchants and opened tea shops. Therefore, in the past, most of the tea shops in Saigon were opened by Hainanese Chinese, located right at crossroads and intersections. However, nowadays, there are almost no Hainanese tea shops left.
The stalls in the old market are characterized by selling noodles, coffee, and various types of pate, sponge cake, and egg cakes, but do not sell meatballs or dumplings like the stalls in Cho Lon" - said Mr. Thiet, Hai Nam Association.
According to Chinese documents, the Hainanese were the first Chinese to migrate to Vietnam.
http://www.360doc.com/content/13/0129/16/9090133_263065217.shtml
