From humble roadside eats to province’s treats

At the 69th kilometer on the highway between Ho Chi Minh City and Vung Tau are scores of roadside stalls selling banh bao, the mouthwatering meat dumplings.

The story of the rather unimaginatively named dumpling 69 began with a humble stall opened here by a couple in the 1980s.

Luong Thi Minh Tuyet, the wife, noticed a dumpling stall run by a man named Ha opposite her house doing roaring business.

The couple decided to ask a veteran cook named Ba, Ha’s teacher, to teach them how to make Chinese dumplings.

“He knew a lot of recipes but did not open any eatery himself; he only taught others how to make the food,” Tuyet says.

“He was poor but had a big heart. No one knows where he has gone now.”

The couple set up a stall at the 69th kilometer on the highway -- in Long Thanh District, Dong Nai Province -- and soon their dumplings became very popular with drivers and tourists who would stop to buy.

They decided to label their stall “Dumpling 69” after hearing complaints from customers that there was no signboard to help them spot it.

“Dumpling 69” is said to be popular for its trademark sweet and rich taste.

“The cake is soft and chewy, the dough is not too dry that it causes one to choke, unlike other dumplings,” Huynh Minh Tien, a driver who often travels between HCMC and Vung Tau, says.

“The stuffing does not have an unpleasant odor like other dumplings and the skin has the sweet and refreshing taste of pineapple leaves which makes you want to eat more.”
But more and more stalls calling themselves “Dumpling 69” began to mushroom along the stretch of highway that the couple decided to register themselves as “Thanh Long 69.”

Other sellers too followed suit and now there are scores of trademarks, all ending with 69 -- Huynh Mai 69, Thanh Thanh 69, Co Can 69.

But Tuyet says trademarks are not enough to stand out in the crowd.

“You need to have the experience to know how to mix the stuffing and dough to create a certain chewy texture and taste to make the customers unable to forget your products.”

She now has three shops and a kitchen with 15 staff and sells 8,000 cakes daily.

Some of the others are also doing well. Thanh Thanh 69, which has been in business for the past two decades, is open from 5am to 7pm every day and sells up to 1,000 dumplings a day.

But it takes hard work and smarts, according to the cake makers.

“It takes me the whole day to make a few dozen kilograms of pachyrhizus extract to make the stuffing,” a Thanh Thanh 69 worker says.

The shops also face fierce competition from one another. The cakes, costing VND5,000 (26 US cents) to VND10,000, require the sellers to spot potential customers faster than their competitors.

“If I am slow, the customer will head to another stall,” Can, the owner of a stall, says.

“You have to compete hard to do business here.”

But all this does not dissuade the shopkeepers as more and more people are developing the habit of stopping at one of these roadside stalls to taste what has become one of Long Thanh’s specialties.

“If you pass through Long Thanh District without drinking fresh cow’s milk or eating dumpling 69, you don’t know what you are missing,” a frequent traveler between HCMC and Vung Tau says

Source: TT