Unmarried, U70 restaurant owner in HCMC 'let loose' to sell crispy food to raise orphaned grandchildren

Never married, the owner of a unique "free-range" rice shop in Ho Chi Minh City used to sell steamed buns to support her younger siblings. In her old age, she sells crispy, fragrant food to support her three orphaned grandchildren.

'Free-roaming' restaurant

At noon, it suddenly rained in Ho Chi Minh City. However, in front of the small restaurant in alley 243 Hoang Dieu street (Khanh Hoi ward, Ho Chi Minh City) there were still many customers waiting.

After a few minutes, the guests saw someone on the first floor of the old house hanging a plastic basket down. Inside the basket were hot rice portions that had been put into boxes, tied with clean, hygienic plastic bags.

Some diners waited in the rain to buy crispy chicken rice from Mrs. Nga. Photo: Ha Nguyen

The staff below receives the rice portions from the plastic basket and delivers them to the customers. When the customers deposit money, the staff also puts it in the plastic basket for the person above to pull up.

This activity is repeated from 9am until the restaurant closes at around 8pm every day. This is a unique way of serving at the 'free-range' chicken rice restaurant owned by Ms. Le Thi Phi Nga (62 years old, Khanh Hoi ward).

Ms. Nga's unique 'free-range' chicken rice shop. Photo: Ha Nguyen

Previously, Mrs. Nga's small restaurant was located on the sidewalk in front of her house. Here, she and her employees, mainly her siblings and nieces, prepared and sold rice and sticky rice dishes in a glass cabinet. However, recently, the sidewalk was renovated, and Mrs. Nga moved the restaurant to the first floor.

She shared: “The restaurant sells at affordable prices so I cannot afford to rent a space. When the alley was repaired and upgraded, I moved the restaurant to my house because I did not have a space to both prepare food and serve customers directly.

Now, we prepare the food on the first floor and sell the rice on the ground floor. To save time, I came up with the idea of ​​putting the rice boxes in baskets and then dropping them down by rope from the first floor to deliver them to the customers.

Staff take rice portions from baskets dropped from upstairs and deliver them to customers. Photo: Ha Nguyen

After moving the restaurant to a house and serving customers by hanging ropes, the restaurant's revenue decreased because only regular customers and long-time customers knew about it and came to buy. Therefore, we mostly sell take-out food."

The restaurant has many dishes such as: pork roll, fried eggs, fried chicken, char siu... with prices from 20,000-30,000 VND/portion. However, the most popular dish, chosen by many customers, is crispy fried chicken skin rice.

This dish is made by Mrs. Nga from chicken skin. After cleaning the chicken skin, she fried it in boiling oil for 1-2 hours.

The fried chicken skin is crispy, fragrant with an attractive fatty and sweet taste. Photo: Ha Nguyen

After frying, the chicken skin is roasted with a secret seasoning. When eaten, the chicken skin is crispy, slightly fatty, and has a fragrant aroma. The crispy, sweet, fragrant, fatty taste of the chicken skin combined with golden fried rice, the rice grains are fluffy and very delicious.

'Children raise younger siblings, old people raise grandchildren'

Due to the continuous heavy rain, a young man named Hieu (23 years old, HCMC) decided to have lunch at Mrs. Nga's "free-range" chicken rice shop. The young man said he was a regular customer of the shop and had been eating there since Mrs. Nga was still selling on the sidewalk.

“The food was delicious. I especially liked the crispy fried chicken skin, so I came back to enjoy it,” Hieu said.

A customer named Hieu is a regular at the 'thà dây' chicken skin rice restaurant. Photo: Ha Nguyen

Similar to Hieu, many other people are also regular customers and have eaten at Mrs. Nga's restaurant since she opened in 2014. However, not many people know about the admirable life of sacrifice of the restaurant owner.

Mrs. Nga was born into a family of 5 children. In 9th grade, Mrs. Nga lost her father. Later, her mother remarried, leaving her with 4 younger siblings who were still in school age.

Under the care of her grandparents, she studied and worked to earn money to support her life. When her siblings grew up, she quit school and went to work to support them.

Ms. Nga never got married and worked hard since she was young before opening a restaurant with unique service. Photo: Ha Nguyen

At first, she sold dumplings and then switched to making ginseng tea. Struggling to make a living and take care of her younger siblings, Mrs. Nga forgot that her youth had passed quickly.

At the age of 18-20, seeing that she was kind and capable, many men pursued her and proposed to her. However, she was afraid that if she had her own family, she would not be able to take good care of her younger siblings, so she refused. Just like that, she did not think about relationships and did not get married.

More than 10 years ago, no longer able to sit from morning until 11pm every day to sell ginseng water, Mrs. Nga switched to selling rice. Thanks to the rice shop, she not only supports herself but also takes care of the education of 3 orphaned grandchildren.

Currently, Ms. Nga continues to care for and support her three orphaned grandchildren. Photo: Ha Nguyen

She confided: “The three children are my sister’s children. Her husband and wife passed away when the children were 5-7 years old. I am not married so I took care of them and paid for their education.

Currently, two of my children have graduated from college. While waiting for jobs, they come to help me sell rice. The other child is in his third year at a university in Ho Chi Minh City.

Although life is still full of difficulties, I wish for nothing more than to have health to live happily and healthily, and to be with my siblings and grandchildren."

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/khong-lay-chong-chu-quan-u70-o-tphcm-tha-day-ban-mon-gion-rum-nuoi-chau-mo-coi-2447412.html