A couple of nearly 20 years selling porridge for 1000 VND

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Porridge 1000 VND

At 3 pm, Mr. and Mrs. Le Cong Minh (68 years old, District 6, Ho Chi Minh City) together displayed an old wooden table on the front porch to sell porridge.

The shop doesn’t have a price list, but everyone knows that a bowl of white porridge here only costs 1,000 VND. And this price has been around for many years.

Mr. Minh is not a businessman. Before becoming the owner of this particular porridge shop, he made a living as a bricklayer. However, the income from that hard work was not enough for him to spend in the family.

After his wife gave birth to their second child, he decided to quit his job. Seeing that there are many poor laborers around the area where he lives, he discussed with his wife to open a shop selling porridge for a living.

Minh and his wife cook white porridge in the traditional way. To have a delicious pot of porridge, grandparents choose to buy good rice. Before cooking, Mr. Minh soaked rice for 2 hours. After that, he cooked this rice for another 2 hours and then brought it to the front of the house to sell.

During the cooking process, Mr. Minh does not add any ingredients or spices to the porridge pot to ensure that the bowl of white porridge has the typical aroma of rice. Every day, Minh and his wife cook about 3.5kg of rice from 1pm. Around 3pm on the same day, finished porridge.

The shop sells from 15 pm to about 20 pm every day. However, around 19:00, grandparents sold out of the freshly cooked porridge. He said: “This year, the restaurant will be 19 years old. At that time, the area where I lived was full of poor workers, but selling porridge was still very low.”

“At that time, I only sold 500 VND/bowl of white porridge. Selling like this so that everyone can eat well. If the price is higher, the poor workers “hard to eat”. I used to work hard to make money, so if I help people save any money, I always try to do my best,” he added.

“Enjoyment for the poor”

The price is very cheap, but the white porridge Mr. Minh and his wife cook is very delicious, so it is warmly received by the poor workers. The small porridge shop, nestled in Mr. Minh’s porch of less than 15 square meters, became a place to fight hunger for the lottery ticket saleswoman, the shoe-shine boy, the bottle-keeper…

In recent years, in addition to poor workers, students, and students, Mr. Minh’s porridge shop also serves the rich. They come here to enjoy a bowl of congee of 1,000 VND, experience the popular life in the middle of the city.

However, Mr. Minh still kept the price and together with his wife cooked many more side dishes such as: Braised, pickled fish, pickled radish, salted duck eggs, shrimp, shrimp rim… All of these dishes are priced from 2000-10,000 VND/piece.

When the shop started to have customers, Mr. Minh discussed with his wife and named the restaurant . Come here baby instead of a cordial and affectionate invitation from his heart towards diners. He said: “The guests coming here are mainly the poor, the working class, students, students…”.

“I invite them sincerely and also sincerely want them to have a full meal, so I sell it for 500 VND/bowl of porridge. In 2012, I saw the price increase, the face value of 500 VND was not used by many people, so I decided to increase the price to 1000 VND / bowl. It was also the first and only price increase so far,” he added.

Mr. Huynh Chi Kim (SN 1956, District 6, HCMC) has been eating porridge cooked by Mr. Minh for the past 10 years. Mr. Minh and his wife’s porridge shop has helped many poor people have a full meal, he said.

“Now, we can barely do anything with 1000-2000 dong. Even if this bill fell on the street, many people would not even pick it up. But here, 1000-2000 dong can buy a full meal. We still call the bar a place to satisfy the poor,” Kim said.

That is also the reason for 10 years, Mr. Minh has not changed the price of porridge even though the price changes day by day.

He explained: “I don’t have to rent space, so I still make a profit even though it’s much less than other people. Now, when the price of goods has increased, it is difficult for everyone, especially the working poor. If I raise the price, it will be harder for them to eat. Well, let’s talk less, share with each other and live.”

Articles, photos, clips: Ha Nguyen