Chris Lewis is an American blogger with a passion for languages and travel. On his personal page, which attracts nearly a million followers, he shares many videos of his experiences and explorations of cultures and cuisines in various countries around the world, including Vietnam.
Chris has expressed that one of the reasons he chose Vietnam as his place of residence, instead of abroad, is because of the “safety” he feels here. After spending a considerable amount of time in the “S-shaped land”, experiencing the culture, cuisine, and interacting with the people, many emotions have arisen within him. The American man feels that “this place feels like home” and spends a lot of time exploring.
Hai Phong is a city where Chris has been closely connected for nearly 4 years, but he admits that this city has so many famous snacks that there are even some dishes he has never heard of in Vietnam. And cháo khoái (sweet potato porridge) is an example.
“On a rainy day, there is nothing more enjoyable than indulging in a hot, fragrant, savory light dish that creates a warm feeling inside. At that time, I was thinking about sweet potato porridge,” the American man said.
Porridge is a familiar and simple dish of the Vietnamese people, made from glutinous rice or regular rice, simmered with meat and added with eggs, some aromatic herbs, and pepper to stimulate the taste buds. However, Hai Phong’s sweet potato porridge has a different touch.
Just like traditional white porridge, when cooking sweet potato porridge, the chef uses fresh bitter vegetables, finely ground and squeezed for the essence. When the porridge is almost cooked, the vegetable essence is poured into the pot of porridge to give it an attractive light green color.
Some places that do not use bitter vegetables can replace them with pandan leaves to create a unique green color and special aroma. The ingredients for sweet potato porridge will include fragrant regular rice ground into fine powder for cooking.
For cooking enthusiasts, it is easy to see that this cooking method is no different from the rib porridge of the people in Hanoi. But the sweet potato porridge in Hai Phong has a subtle fragrance from bitter vegetables or pandan leaves, with its distinctive green color.
To find out more information, Chris had to look up how sweet potato porridge is made online. When mentioning porridge, he usually imagines that people will eat it in the early morning as a breakfast or in the late afternoon to ward off hunger before dinner time. Meanwhile, the sweet potato porridge in Hai Phong is usually sold around 3 pm.
The porridge stall Chris visited, run by an elderly woman affectionately known as “Aunt Yen” in Le Chan district, has been open for over 20 years, starting from 3 pm and usually sells out within 2-3 hours. Therefore, those who want to eat Aunt Yen’s porridge must be prepared to arrive early.
Although called a stall, Aunt Yen’s stall is simple, with only a traditional cart. Inside the cart are all the necessary utensils for a selling session, from the cooking pot to bowls and spoons. Low plastic stools are placed around for customers to sit and eat.
Excited to try sweet potato porridge for the first time, the American guest appeared quite eager. He watched intently as Aunt Yen slowly scooped the hot, green porridge into a large bowl. Then, she added some finely chopped mung beans and crispy fried shallots on top.
Seemingly simple, Aunt Yen revealed that preparing this dish requires quite a bit of effort. It took her a whole morning to simmer the pork bone broth. The sweet broth is added to the porridge, simmered on the fire.
“All blended into a very special, delicious flavor,” the American guest commented.
When paying the bill, Chris was even more surprised to learn that “this delicious dish only costs 15,000 Vietnamese dong”, equivalent to 0.6 USD.
“It’s hard to believe it’s so cheap,” he said.
Before leaving the stall, the male blogger bid a friendly farewell to the seller and the customers dining. Aunt Yen was also very happy that her stall had welcomed a foreign guest today. Chris even promised to introduce more people to come and eat to make the stall busier.
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