The stories about my three sticky rice's street vendors

When I was a little boy, one of my favorite morning meal was the sticky rice, I can even list down now where I used to buy this popular breakfast. Let's me start with the newest story.

The today's story 

I have no idea how long this nice couple, selling sticky rice here, in Ton That Tung street, near to the junction of Bui Thi Xuan street. It could be 20 years or even more, but my first time to buy from them was around 10-12 years ago!

            

What I like the most from this vendor - is they still use the banana leaves to wrap the rice, I love the freshness of the green leaves fragrantly merged with still hot steamed sticky rice, it's just indescribably irresistible flavour!

            The banana leave to wrap, the flaky sticky rice cracker to layer in the bottom...

              and on top covered with shredded coconut - purely sweet sticky rice in a Southern style. 

         
here's my purchase : a pack of green bean sticky rice with coconut milk - purely Southern style      and another sticky rice, originally from the North - "xôi vò". And it costs you only 10,000 dong per each!

              Look yummy? 

               and much tastier with coconut milk! 

It happened that sometime they were selling only "xôi vò", no other busy baskets around her...and the husband complained "my wife was so sick, we couldn't prepare anything except this "xôi"....". I did buy 2 or 3 pack of "xôi vò". It was very cheap, 10,000 dong per pack. I just hope they make a good living by selling a very good "xôi", like some other people do.

The second story 

The another street vendor  was a Southern woman, selling the corn sticky rice in a Southern style before or right after 1975, but as far as I remember my mom or maybe someone from my family used to buy from her. With a scarf on her head and a big basket on top of it, she moved around in the neighbourhood, she always shouted to let people know that she was coming, be ready to buy! Her voice was strong and high, quite impressive and hearable from far! I actually didn't like much the wet corn sticky rice but I do like the rich coconut milk over the rice and especially the small spoon made of coconut leaves that she always gave with a purchase.

              Corn sticky rice in a Southern style, sesame, coconut really enrich the taste of  corn! 

I didn't see this vendor for very long time due to my overseas study, my living in my own house at another place, but recently when I moved back to my parents house, I saw her again in our neighbourhood, probably in her late 60s, she was still shouting but her voice is no longer strong, high like in the old days. Always with a basket on her head, she kept going around. I did ask her once to buy the old-time wet sticky rice but it was sold out.

These days I rarely see her again and regretted that I didn't have a camera at that time to catch the image of the past.  

The oldest story

My very first street vendor of sticky rice was the old woman from the North with her traditional dyed black teeth. That was before 1975, so she surely moved to Saigon in 1950s. She was sitting on the pavement at the corner of Tran Binh Trong and Nguyen Trai, not far from my family house, selling the typical corn sticky rice in a Northern style and the sticky rice with peanut. Her image is sill very vivid in my thinking.

           Corn sticky rice in a Northern style 

Every morning on my way to the school nearby, I always passed by her, sometime I loved to sit down just for a few minutes, curiously observed how she took the hot sticky rice from a big bamboo basket. 

This woman surely passed away long time ago, then later on I found her daughter continued, as her mother, to sell sticky rice, exactly at the same place but now with a small cart. I recognised the daughter immediately as she used to help her mother in the past when she was a teenager. I did tell her that I used to buy "xôi" (sticky rice) from her mother, she smiled but I saw in her eyes the sadness.

           Peanut sticky rice  

I quite like her sticky rice with peanut as the nut was well-cooked, fairly soft, from time to time I saw her husband helping her, she seemed not in good health. But already more than two years she was no longer at the old place. I have no idea what happened: she's sick, she just stays at home...

Two generations of the street vendor, from the mother to the daughter, passing by in my life. How many times I loved to take a photo of her, the daughter, but I didn't and now I won't have that chance again.