Quang Trung Ice Cream

(Baonghean.vn) - Back then, Vinh city had two famous "eat and play" brands, both of which belonged to Quang Trung. When it comes to Quang Trung Ice Cream, I'm sure there's no child in this city who doesn't know it. Simply put, in the summer, being able to put your mouth on a cool ice cream cone was the dream of many of us children..

Famous brand

That famous ice cream shop was across the street, opposite the current A5 Quang Trung building. Actually, Quang Trung refreshment shop sold many things: tapioca starch, lemonade, coffee... but people came here mainly to eat ice cream. Not only Vinh city people but also people from the countryside, who went to Vinh market, also took the opportunity to come here to make ice cream sticks. This place was also a place to reward the academic achievements of fathers and mothers in the city and neighboring areas. No one knew how much ice cream they sold every day, but just collecting the ice cream sticks alone filled several baskets.

Illustration photo

Back then, there were no ice cream cups, Quang Trung Ice Cream mainly had pure white milk ice cream, opaque green bean ice cream and coconut ice cream, each ice cream stick cost 2 cents. During the day, the shop mainly sold wholesale to street vendors, and when the night came, it was cooler and more people came to eat ice cream. After parking the bike and locking the ice cream carefully in the empty lot in front of the shop, one had to line up for 15-20 minutes to get their “long-cherished wish” and suck around the cold ice cream sticks in the middle of the hot summer. Many children did not dare to bite hard, afraid that the ice cream stick would run out quickly, so they sucked around slowly.

The city at that time still had Tam Dong ice cream from Mr. Khoai “ice cream” but people still preferred Quang Trung ice cream because of its much better quality. The reason ice cream was the “exclusive specialty” of state-owned trading stores at that time was because it was difficult for private individuals to import refrigeration equipment, and they could not buy milk, sugar, green beans… the ingredients for making ice cream because they were restricted and banned from the market. Private ice cream shops, mainly ice cream with a little milk for coloring, were not popular.

Every end of May, before summer break, my friends go to Vinh market to buy styrofoam boxes and find some wooden bars to make ice cream boxes. At 5am, we call each other and ride our bikes to the store to get ice cream to sell. Each ice cream box can hold about 50 ice creams, and those with more capital will make 2 boxes and attach them to the back of their bikes. Each ice cream sold on the street earns 50 cents, and those who work hard during the 3 summer months will earn enough clothes and books for the new school year. At first, my friends were all shy about going out to sell ice cream, but they couldn’t do it because how could they pay for their studies…so they kept going and got used to it.

- Ice cream here, anyone want some ice cream…

The debt of the past

I remember the summer of 1982, when I was a high school student. I was starting to fall in love with a girl who lived on the same floor as me, so one evening I generously announced that I would treat all the kids in the building to Quang Trung Ice Cream. Truly a straw hero. The whole group cheered when the word ice cream was mentioned, and it was Quang Trung Ice Cream!

A corner of Quang Trung apartment building

With no money in my pocket, I still took the risk of taking the whole group to Quang Trung ice cream shop to…steal. The lovely girl Thuy Duong also went with me. I assigned the kids to observe where the ladies and gentlemen in the ice cream making area were standing so that we could conveniently steal. It took us nearly 2 hours to determine that the ice cream was almost frozen and we could go in and steal the ice cream that was in the mold. All of us kids from the upper floors were engrossed in our “spoils of war” when suddenly, out of nowhere, 2 or 3 parents came looking for their children with whips in their hands. That night, I – the leader of the “serious crime” quickly ran into the Phan school dormitory to hide for a week. I heard that the children in the upper floors all got their asses kicked that night for…stealing ice cream. As for me, “love has not come, love has gone” just because of some attractive Quang Trung ice cream bars, the pain of humanity!

I owe you an ice cream. After all these years of being attached to Quang Trung, who else do I owe? I promised myself I would return, soon return to the place where I was attached to my entire childhood, would walk along Quang Trung street, would savor the joy of those days with my friends of the same age.

An Thanh