"Difficult" dishes to name

Every day at 5 p.m., Ms. Ong Thi Thuy Kieu (60 years old) pushes a cart full of unique dishes to the sidewalk at the intersection of Pham Dinh Ho and Bai Say streets (District 6, HCMC) to sell.

Her sidewalk restaurant attracts diners with a sign listing strange-sounding dishes such as: Bubbles, pig's breasts, pork rinds, etc. In particular, this place has a dish made from pig's penis, attracting diners to experience and enjoy.

Mrs. Kieu and her mother, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Lan (80 years old), have been selling this dish here for the past 15 years. In the past few months, Mrs. Lan has switched to selling wonton leaves, noodles, and rice noodles in the morning, so she doesn't go out to the sidewalk to sell with her daughter in the evenings like before.

In a small glass cabinet placed on the cart, Mrs. Kieu filled it with pig ears, pig brains, pig penis, fried crispy pork rinds... When customers come to choose their dishes, Mrs. Kieu uses scissors to cut the ingredients, puts them on the scale, then pours them into a small pan to fry and stir-fry until hot.

These ingredients are fried and stir-fried with leafy spinach and fresh okra. Most of the dishes are chewy, crunchy, delicious and unique.

Mrs. Kieu has a unique recipe for making fermented bean curd sauce, sweet and sour fish sauce, and green pepper salt, each with its own flavor. These sauces make the dish more flavorful and unforgettable.

Depending on the ingredients, each meal here costs from 30,000 VND. Ms. Kieu explained: “I sell dishes by the ounce because each ingredient has a different price.

Pig penis, pig brain cost 50,000 VND/tael. Pig ears, pig bladder... cost 30,000 VND/tael. Customers can eat each dish separately or mix them together. The price of the mixed dish is 50,000 VND/tael.

Selling on the sidewalk is the hardest when it rains or storms. If the weather is good, I can sell all the ingredients I bring and earn 1-1.5 million VND.

However, if it rains, my mother and I can only sit and look at each other until midnight, then pack up and go home. There are days when it rains heavily and the strong wind blows away the umbrella, soaking all the food. On days like that, I am happy to break even.”

The customer blushed when ordering.

Mrs. Kieu has been hard-working since childhood. Growing up, she followed her mother into petty trading. When she got married, she switched to selling rice but was not successful.

When she saw that pig penis was popular, she and her mother pushed their cart out onto the sidewalk to sell. To get the ingredients, she went to the slaughterhouse to order fresh pig penis at a price of 200,000-300,000 VND/kg.

After that, she cleaned the ingredients, soaked them in salt water, and then washed them with lemon juice to remove the smell. After washing, she boiled them twice in clean water, then took them out and let them cool naturally.

When sold, this ingredient is stir-fried or deep-fried with cooking oil and many spices mixed according to her own recipe.

As the afternoon wore on, Mrs. Kieu’s strange and exotic dishes became more popular. There was no age or gender limit to the customers.

In addition to regular customers who come to buy it as a snack, she also welcomes many visitors who come to experience it on the spot. Among them are many young people who are embarrassed and blush when reading the names of dishes made from pig penis that Ms. Kieu wrote on the board.

After seeing Ms. Kieu and her mother selling strange food on the sidewalk many times, a female student named Tran decided to go with her friends to experience it.

The girls blushed and were embarrassed when they heard the name of the dish made from the sensitive part of a pig. Meanwhile, an elderly guest said that his whole family really liked the dish made from pig penis. When he ate it, he did not smell any strange smell.

Ms. Kieu confided: “Because I have been selling for a long time, I have many regular customers. Some people have been eating my food since they were young. When they get married, they still bring their wives and children here to eat or buy some to take home.

Every time like that, they would say hello and ask about my mother's health. There were also quite a few passersby. Most of them came to eat out of curiosity and then became regular customers."