Part 1: The bustling dog meat restaurant

(Baonghean)"While alive, one eats dog sausage / When dead, one goes to the underworld, who knows if there's any left?" This humorous verse has been passed down for a very long time, and few people deny it. Dog meat is delicious. Dog meat is rich in protein. That's true, and... it's as old as the hills. But…

Late on a cold Sunday afternoon in winter, I suddenly received a call from my best friend: "Let's go have some dog meat." "What's going on? It's freezing cold and raining so heavily..." My friend pleaded: "Come on. A car will pick us up. We're all acquaintances, let's go have some fun!" Okay, let's go! A few minutes later, the whole group headed straight for the Broken Bridge.

Ý Sáng Dog Meat Restaurant – the dog meat restaurant near Cầu Gãy bridge in Hưng Châu commune, Hưng Nguyên district – is famous throughout Vinh City and surrounding areas. Therefore, even though the city is full of dog meat restaurants, and it's 5-6 km away, Vinh residents still frequently visit. The Phạm Hồng Thái road leading to Cầu Gãy bridge is under construction and very difficult to navigate, full of potholes and muddy terrain. Yet, upon arrival, there was already a considerable amount of traffic, and people were sitting shoulder to shoulder. Seeing new customers, the waitress quickly said, "We're only cooking now!" "You traveled all the way from Vinh in the cold, rainy weather and didn't even come back?" my friend grumbled, then rushed in to ask the owner: "Is it really all sold out, ma'am?" "It's really all sold out, sir. If we had more, we'd sell it; we wouldn't keep it for our family to eat! Come back another time," the owner said, slicing the meat for steaming, her hands gesticulating like martial arts. Pointing to the steamed meat and the freshly fried sausages, golden brown and steaming, you asked, "What about that?" The owner sweetly replied, "It's all for the customers, sir. And there aren't many left anyway." "Well, if the authentic Broken Bridge version is sold out, then we'll go back to Broken Bridge 2," the old man said. And so the whole group trudged onto the motorbike.

The Cau Gay 2 dog meat restaurant is located next to the Cua Tien bridge. It was just past 6 o'clock, but it was already pitch dark, and like the Y Sang - Cau Gay dog ​​meat restaurant, it was packed with all kinds of vehicles. Looking inside, we saw a lively crowd of diners eating and drinking, with enthusiastic cheers and shouts. One person in the group said, "Let's leave, or we'll waste our time. If not Cau Gay, then we'll go to Nguyen Phong Sac street."



Dog meat restaurants line Nguyen Phong Sac Street (Vinh City).

Nguyen Phong Sac Street (Vinh City) is nicknamed the "dog meat street" by some. This is because a stretch of only a few hundred meters has five or six dog meat restaurants, all displaying huge signs. Things like "VH - Dog Meat Center," "CQ - All kinds of dog meat dishes," etc. We bravely entered the VH restaurant. Luckily, although it was busy, the food was plentiful. The middle-aged owner greeted us warmly: "Steamed, sausage, and boiled meat are all available. How much do you want to eat?" My friend, the one paying, rattled off: "Give us a plate of steamed meat, a plate of sausage, and reserve four legs and four feet for us. We'll order the boiled meat later. Remember to bring a bottle of rice wine."

Very quickly, in just five minutes, the waiter brought out a feast of dog meat. A large plate of golden-brown, greasy fried dog sausage topped with thin slices of steaming, fragrant steamed heart. Another very large plate of steamed dog meat, expertly cut, very lean with just a little skin and a thin strip of white fat, looked very appetizing. Then there were green bananas, sour starfruit, lemongrass, thinly sliced ​​galangal, herbs, and two bowls of shrimp paste.

I have to say, eating dog meat in the freezing winter is delicious. My friend, with chopsticks, picked up a piece of sausage, swirled it around, and murmured: "While alive, one eats dog sausage / When dead, one goes to the underworld, who knows if there will be any?"… In over an hour, the whole group had finished a plate of sausage, a plate of boiled meat, 4 thighs, 4 feet (what my friend called "earth-stepping feet"), two bowls of stew, and a bottle of "national liquor," all for just under 500,000 dong. Afterward, my friend said: "Isn't that good? Not a waste of precious time, right…?" Before I could answer, the phone rang. Another friend: "Where are you?" "Just finished a dog meat feast." "Didn't you hear the news? In mid-December 2012, the Nghi Loc police just finished a dog theft case. They caught a dog meat restaurant outside the Nam Cam Industrial Zone, and I heard they were selling poisoned dog meat." "You have to be careful when eating dog meat these days, or you might catch a disease!" "Hey, don't joke around like that, or we'll lose our appetite..." Over the phone, he lowered his voice and whispered, "Well, not all dog meat restaurants are like that, but you should be careful. You can't always trust that kind of thing. Really!"

Hearing about the dog meat poisoning incident made me feel uneasy. I had to get to the bottom of it. The next morning, I inquired with the Nghi Loc District Police, and they confirmed that they had indeed busted a group specializing in the sale of contaminated dog meat, seizing nearly 100 kg of dead dogs. This included several dead dogs that hadn't been butchered yet, some frozen dog meat stored in freezers, and some offal. They said, "Among the seized dog meat, some was moldy, deformed, and smelled foul..."

Ha Giang