Article and photos:Duong Thuy
From street tea cups
Many people believe that the specialty of Saigon sticky rice and sweet soup was created by a woman from the North 37 years ago. That is Ms. Hoang Thi Hoa - the owner of the Bui Thi Xuan sticky rice and sweet soup brand. The sticky rice and sweet soup business started with Ms. Hoa in 1977. At that time, when business was slow, with a little talent for cooking, she came up with a way to cook green bean, red bean, and white bean sweet soup to sell at an elementary school in District 4 to increase her income.
Being a person with a kind and meticulous nature in housework, when choosing ingredients to start her career, Ms. Hoa did not mind the effort. She went to the markets to find fresh ingredients such as Long Xuyen green beans, Bao Loc red beans and white beans that must be Da Lat young beans to be able to make a pot of sweet and fragrant sweet soup.
With cool, sweet cups of chè with a distinctive taste, in the beginning, Mrs. Hoa only sold about 0.5kg per day, but now she has increased to dozens of kg of beans for each type. Not stopping there, when the trend of Thai chè, American chè, and Khúc Bạch chè entered Saigon, this woman herself went to every chè shop to taste the flavors and then condensed them into her own products, not mixed with anyone else but still enthusiastically enjoyed by everyone.
Sweet soup and sticky rice combination
After the dessert was successful, with quickness and intelligence, Ms. Hoa realized: selling sweets is mainly to cool down when the weather is hot, but Saigon's weather is divided into two distinct seasons: rainy and dry. In the rainy season, cold desserts sell much slower than in the dry season. So, she should sell sticky rice to make it easier for customers to choose.
The first two dishes were sticky rice with gac fruit and white sticky rice served with Chinese sausage, shredded fried chicken, quail eggs, sausages, etc., which Saigonese people often call “salty sticky rice”. Like sweet soup, sticky rice is carefully prepared by Mrs. Hoa, and has now been created into many dishes such as: sticky rice with char siu, sticky rice with chicken floss, sticky rice with braised pork tongue, sticky rice with braised chicken giblets, sticky rice with dried shrimp, etc. All are very delicious, each type of sticky rice has its own unique flavor, and anyone who has eaten it once will promise to come back.
Over time, when mentioning Xoi Che Bui Thi Xuan, almost every resident of this city gives a score of 10 for the dishes that the owner has created for them a very unique Saigon flavor. Her customers, including the children who were brought here by their parents in the early days, are now middle-aged people who still come to the shop every week. Her Xoi Che shop is located near the press area, so at noon it is often the time for reporters to gather.
Currently, the gentle woman who created a unique mark for Xoi Che Sai Gon has passed the age of 76. She has left all the work at the shop to her children to feel secure in her pilgrimage. After the trips, she stays up to cook sweet soup or dry sticky rice pots with her children as an indispensable part of life. Listening to the story of "Xoi Che Sai Gon" on a rainy afternoon in early summer, enjoying her products, I feel light and relaxed.
Enjoy Saigon sticky rice and sweet soup at:
Address of Bui Thi Xuan Sticky Rice and Sweet Soup
- Branch 1: 111 Bui Thi Xuan, Pham Ngu Lao Ward, District 1, HCMC. Tel .08.3833 2748
- Branch 2: 33 Dinh Tien Hoang, Ward 3, Binh Thanh District, HCMC.. Tel.08. 3517 8333
- Branch 3: 160 Nguyen Oanh – Go Vap District. Tel. 08.6675 3882
