Raising children with a noodle cart 'made in Quang Ngai'

In the evening, inside a small alley on Nam Chau Street, Ward 11, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, there is a small cart selling noodles that many people whisper to each other that the noodles are “made in Quang Ngai ”.

That is the noodle cart of Mrs. Le Thi Hue, 61 years old, from Duc Pho town, Quang Ngai province.

She said that in 1995, when her youngest son was just 20 months old, she decided to take him away from her poor hometown (Duc Pho district) to Ho Chi Minh City to find a living. When she was still in her hometown, she "learned" the way to cook Hu Tieu, a typical dish of the Quang people, so when she moved to the South, she decided to choose the job of selling Hu Tieu Go to make a living. She has been selling Hu Tieu since the time when a bowl of Hu Tieu Go was "common" and only cost a few thousand Dong, but now it is about 25,000 Dong, if the bowl has ham, it is 30,000 Dong. In total, she has been "attached" to the Hu Tieu Go cart in this land for almost 30 years.

Mrs. Hue always happily makes hot noodles for customers. PHOTO: TGCC

She said, “back then, people from Quang Nam” who were far from their hometowns, came to Ho Chi Minh City to make a living, by selling noodles like me, they had to go around the neighborhood, around the alleys to make the ‘right’ sound, which people often called… noodles knocking”. The tools to knock noodles around the alleys were just two small, round pieces of wood, the person knocking just held the two pieces of wood and knocked them “clack, clack” together to make a sound. She hired someone to knock noodles around the alleys. Some evenings when they didn’t have to go to school, her children would take the time to help their mother and knock noodles.

With a gentle smile and a typical Quang Nam people's open-hearted voice, she said, "Nowadays, people who sell noodle soup don't have to knock like they did more than ten years ago. Sometimes, regular customers who want to eat a hot bowl of noodle soup call me to bring it to their house. It's less tiring, but sometimes I feel like something is missing. Sometimes, when I sit down to sell, I feel a pang in my heart, suddenly craving the feeling of hearing the knocking sound, craving the 'clack, clack' sound of two pieces of wood hitting each other, made by people who have been selling noodle soup like me for the past several decades."

Many regular customers come to her familiar noodle cart every afternoon to enjoy a hot bowl of noodles. Some have been attached to her noodle bowl for nearly 30 years, like Mr. Nguyen Van Dung (a worker, from Phu Yen ) said, "It is true that the taste of Mrs. Hue's noodle bowl is the way of making and preparing it, a pure Central Vietnamese dish, from the very rich and unforgettable seasoning to the spices, bean sprouts, chives... all originating from the Central region...".

Most of her regular customers, who come to eat a bowl of noodle soup, come from all walks of life, from high to low, but mostly students, workers, nighttime street sweepers, and people who collect scrap metal.

She said that for decades, she had sold “for free” and sold on credit countless times to poor people who were living far from home, struggling to make a living in the dark of night. Sometimes it was a cleaning lady who forgot to bring money, sometimes it was a poor old lady who was collecting scrap metal at night but didn’t have enough money to buy a bowl of hu tieu go, and sometimes it was people who got lost at night and lost all their money. Some people came to her and ordered a bowl of hot hu tieu go, slurped the bowl, touched their pockets and realized they forgot to bring money, she smiled gently and said it was okay, come back when you have time and pay her later.

The conversation between me and her “paused” when her phone “ringed”. On the other end of the line was a regular customer asking her to make 2 bowls of noodles. Putting down the phone, her hands moved quickly and professionally, she made 2 bowls of noodles according to the regular customer’s request and then took them away…

She said, “To have a delicious bowl of noodles, the broth is suitable for diners with a unique and distinctive flavor, especially for regular customers from Quang Nam, I have my own secret when seasoning and adding typical spices from my hometown when cooking noodles. Every time I go back to my hometown, I buy and bring along the typical spices from my hometown to save…”.

On busy days, when the sale is over, she returns to her room around 11pm. On slow days, especially during the rainy season when the streets are deserted and there are few customers, it is common for her to have to push the cart back to her room alone in the middle of the night. She says she tries to sell until everything is done, because sometimes customers miss the way, come home from a late night out and stop by for a hot bowl of noodles.

In recent years, especially since the pandemic broke out, her noodle cart has been selling much slower than before. Sometimes, in the evening until late at night, she only sells more than a dozen bowls, and her profits have also decreased. But that has not stopped her from selling the cart or her job because the noodle business has become her lifeblood and the life of her whole family.

When I asked an old woman, alone like her, making a living on the street, if she was afraid of danger or bad guys, she smiled gently and said, “My life has been poor, making a living with this noodle cart for decades, I'm sure bad guys know, I don't have much money, I only have a few coins on me. But God must be merciful, I've been selling on this familiar street corner for decades now and have been safe and sound, I've only met good people, people who love me.”

“I do not let down my job, my job does not let down me, thanks to the noodle cart for the past decades, I have been able to support my husband and children to become good people,” she said. Her eldest son and stepdaughter have graduated and have been working for many years. Thanks to this noodle cart, she has been able to take care of her husband and her sick mother in her hometown. And, thanks to this noodle cart, after decades of making a living in Saigon, she has been able to build a more solid house to protect her from the sun and rain.

She said that after selling noodles in Ho Chi Minh City for decades, she had gotten used to the life of renting a room here. Every time she had to go back to her hometown to attend a funeral or take care of her sick mother for about ten or fifteen days, she would miss the city terribly. She missed the poor room where everyone took care of her, she missed the noodle cart in the familiar alley where she had spent more than half her life making a living...

With eyes full of determination and faith of a woman from the Central region, “Quang province”, she said “I will try to stay in this land, stick with this noodle cart, with the job that I have chosen for the past few decades until I feel I am no longer healthy enough to sell anymore. Because selling noodle cart is my life, the reason for my life.

Thanhnien.vn

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nuoi-con-an-hoc-tu-xe-hu-tieu-go-made-in-quang-ngai-185241007084710822.htm