Vinh Market and the Taste of Life

(Baonghean) - My aunt sells clothes at Vinh market, so since I was a child, I often went to this largest market in the city. When mentioning the market, many people still click their tongues and immediately think of a mixed smell of seafood, dried onions and garlic, leather, metal, etc. But I found in it a strangely close, familiar and warm smell. The smell of life.

Clothing stalls do not have to be set up early like fresh food stalls, food stalls or vegetable wholesale markets, so when I followed her to the market, most of the stalls were already bustling with activity. I said market because Vinh market has a market hall and an outer market, and inside the hall there are upper and lower pavilions, East - West - South - North pavilions. Her stall was located separately from the stalls selling fresh food such as meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, food, and dried goods, so it had a very different smell.

In front of Vinh Market.

It is the smell of brand new fabrics that people do not often see in other markets in the city. It is the smell that makes people feel clean and bright, as if the soul has just been washed and dried in the sun after long, wet rainy days. The last days of summer and early autumn, preparing for the new school year, are the times when the clothing stalls are busiest, always filled with a warm atmosphere by the gentle looks of mothers taking their children to buy new clothes for the first day of school.

But Vinh market does not only have that to please me. Vinh market also has stalls selling breakfast - lunch - dinner, there is everything in the world. These are not sturdy, shiny stalls like the restaurants and eateries we often see on the street. Sometimes the breakfast stall is just a pair of shoulder poles with two small baskets, one with sticky rice, the other with eggs and ham. The sticky rice seller carries her pole everywhere, wandering to each stall on the communal house and in the market, selling to the ladies who set up their stalls early and are still a bit sleepy, with no customers yet, so their hands and mouths are empty.

Refreshment stall, mixed sweet soup - favorite stop for ladies every time they shop at Vinh market.

When the sticky rice load is quite empty, the sticky rice seller can “collect” and “trade” all kinds of gossip from every corner of the market, which is also the corner of this colorful and multifaceted life. Around noon, there are stalls selling beef noodle soup, vermicelli with grilled pork, and mussel rice. The vendor brings small trays to each stall, where women are gathered in groups of three or five. The food in the market has one thing in common: the prices are extremely affordable, sometimes much more delicious than the same food sold in big restaurants.

The vendor delivers the food and then continues to deliver it to other stalls in the market, occasionally stopping by to add a few words to the endless stories of the women. The bowls and chopsticks are neatly stacked in a corner, the vendor walks around the market and then comes back to pick up the bowls and chopsticks, the cycle of life repeats itself over and over again every day. But somehow, no one who participates in it finds it boring, perhaps because of the stories - which have become a kind of flavoring to add more flavor to the common meals at the market.

Among the foods at Vinh market, I like two things the most: coffee and mixed sweet soup. Mixed sweet soup is probably too obvious. No one steps into Vinh market without having eaten mixed sweet soup. That does not mean that mixed sweet soup at Vinh market is incredibly delicious, but it is just that the rustic food is strangely suitable for the space, atmosphere of the market and the mentality of the market goers.

For those who require more contemplation, there is the “foam” coffee shop of Uncle Long and Aunt Ly. It is called a shop, but in fact it is just a small stall of less than 10 square meters, located in the middle of a second-hand market with stalls of clothing and iron goods scattered about. According to the uncle and aunt and the people in this market, the “foam” coffee shop of the couple opened nearly 20 years ago. The strange thing is that most of the customers who visit this shop are women. Usually, only men like to drink coffee, while women like sweet drinks. Yet this “foam” coffee is also loved by women and children. Why is that?

This question of mine was answered when I was a child following my aunt to the market to look after the stalls. My aunt was also one of the female customers who were “addicted” to the “foam” coffee of Uncle Long and Aunt Ly. Sitting swinging my legs on a long wooden bench, I attentively followed every action of the man in his forties. “Foam” is a mixture made from egg whites, so thick that you can turn the cup upside down without the slightest movement.

The ingredients of a proper cup of “foam” coffee are not too complicated: a layer of condensed milk at the bottom, then a layer of pure black coffee, then a layer of crushed ice - not shaved ice, blended ice, and finally the “foam” layer that makes up the brand of the shop. Normally, I still see people drinking coffee slowly, waiting for each drop of coffee to fall from the filter, enjoying each small sip. As for “foam” coffee, the way to enjoy it is also very different, people use a spoon to scoop it like scooping tea.

Enjoying a cup of “foamy” coffee with all the ingredients, feeling the full bitterness, sweetness, fat, and aroma rising in the throat, only then can one truly understand the reason why this special coffee shop is so popular. Not fussy or stylized, but it is a very real, very strong coffee, adding to the generosity in the fat of the egg foam like the generosity of the bartender, creating a pleasant feeling for the person enjoying it, filling in the quiet contemplation of everyday life.

The Vinh market of today and the Vinh market in my childhood memory are very different. The market hall has now been rebuilt spaciously into 3 floors, of which the first and second floors have been filled with businesses. There is no longer the stuffy, hot summer afternoons like before, the market is more airy, brighter, and more decorated and organized.

The outside of the market hall has also been gradually rebuilt, more decent, with layers and rows, and proper order. Most recently, the market area that used to be a gathering place for traders selling livestock and poultry has been planned and rebuilt into a wholesale market. At first glance, the landscape is clean and beautiful, the roads are straight and more spacious.

Of course, there will still be regrets when remembering the old stalls. It is the nostalgia for the colorful memories, sounds and smells of a child eager to explore life. It is also the concern of the traders whose lives are closely linked to the breath of the market. When building and opening a new market, people often say "marrying the market", meaning that trading at the market also requires fate and luck.

Sometimes simple and somewhat rustic things bring people a very charming and lovely feeling, and when changing to welcome new and modern things, we still can't help but miss them. It sounds a bit contradictory, but for me, the default image of the market is the smell of gasoline from fish and shrimp, the musty smell of traditional medicine, the burnt smell of dried goods, etc.

It would be difficult for any writer or poet to be moved by the rough, rugged sounds and smells of the market.

But for me, it is a strange beauty that makes my heart flutter on a winter afternoon when I quickly stop by a deserted supermarket, with only white, clean but cold stalls. At those times, in a faraway land, I think of my mother, of the stalls that are always filled with chatter and sympathetic nods from small lives and people. And I long to be back here, standing in the middle of my beloved city's market, to inhale and satisfy my longing.

Thuc Anh