Thao Dien Night Street in Thu Duc City, has been opened on a trial basis every Friday and Saturday from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. the next day to satisfy the recreational, entertainment, and shopping desires of both residents and tourists in the largest expat hub of the southern metropolis.
The 465-meter-long street stretches along a section of Xuan Thuy Street and borders Quoc Huong and Nguyen Van Huong Streets. In addition to the array of restaurants, eateries, and shops along the night street, numerous art performances and music shows are scheduled to entertain visitors. The street’s trial operation period spans from January 19 to July 19, 2024.
The local authorities will also arrange free electric vehicles to meet the transportation needs of visitors and residents who come to explore and enjoy the area, according to the Bao Dau Tu news site.
Stone-grilled sausages captivate Saigonese
The stone-grilled sausage dish has taken social media by storm in HCMC for over two weeks, with numerous sidewalk stalls in Go Vap, Tan Binh, and Tan Phu District attracting long lines of young customers.
To make this dish, the vendor places sausages on a stone-covered tray above an electric stove. The heat from the stones imparts a crispy and golden outer layer to the sausages. After that, the vendor sprinkles Chinese-made chili powder onto the sausages to enhance their flavors.
“It is tasty, spicy, and aromatic. Although I had to spend time waiting in line for it, I felt it was worth trying,” a customer told the VnExpress news site.
Some vendors said that they could sell over 500 sausages daily. In the initial opening week, the busiest period for his stall was from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., with more than 20 people queuing up. A stone- grilled sausage at their stalls is priced at VND15,000.
Grilled rice paper sells well in Thailand
The counter serving grilled rice paper of the Vietnamese husband and his Thai wife in Surat Thani, Thailand, with a large number of guests waiting to be served, went viral on social media these days.
In 2018, Winnisa Sodwilai, a.k.a. Nan, left her hometown Surat Thani to work at a spa on Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Island (Kien Giang Province). There she met and fell in love with Le Dinh Duy, a local islander. In 2020, Nan had to return to Thailand because of the outbreak of Covid-19. One year later, Duy managed to go to Thailand to see his sweetheart. Their wedding was held in early 2022.
Duy and Nan then settled down in Thailand and started their business by selling spring rolls in Bangkok. However, since their clientele was modest, they decided to return to Surat Thani. Duy ordered rice paper from Dalat City, grilled them for sale to students at a counter in a school’s canteen. Then they transferred the profitable business to Nan’s mother and opened another counter serving grilled rice paper and could earn a decent living in Thailand, according to thanhnien.vn.
Making lacquered dragon items to ring in Year of the Dragon
Nguyen Tan Phat, a lacquer artisan in the ancient village of Duong Lam (Son Tay Town, Hanoi), is making a collection of 1,000 lacquered dragon statues, statuettes and paintings to welcome the upcoming Year of the Dragon.
The huge collection of lacquered dragon items has been being made by Phat over the past two years, using jackfruit wood and laterite, the materials that are abundant in Son Tay. The highlight of his collection for the upcoming Lunar New Year is a large gold plated sofa made from jackfruit wood in the shape of a swaying dragon costing up to VND2 billion.
With 22 years of experience in the lacquer art, Phat has opened free classes at his own workshop for those interested in this traditional craft with a view to popularizing lacquer to everyone. His lacquer workshop has attracted quite a few local and foreign visitors to Duong Lam. He also opens a free showroom at his house to display different lacquer items for interested guests, tienphong.vn reported.
