This season, plum – plum is sold throughout the northern specialty markets in Ho Chi Minh City I sat down next to her stall with ripe yellow apricots, and picked up a few of them in my hand and saw a characteristic aroma. Next to it is a tray with plums left with white chalk, green stalks, neatly arranged, full of eye-catching. – Pick up 2kg of apricots for me, choose which one to not crush. – Peace of mind, 10 results as one. She sells here every day, never being complained by customers. Someone bought a dozen pounds of sugar soaked and soaked in salt. Finished buying, driving slowly in the market, all over the main aisle, the plum, plum stalls are displayed everywhere. Glancing at the scribbled price lists on the cardboard sheets, the prices did not seem much different. Europe is also the implicit agreement of the sellers, no one wants to devalue. In Ho Chi Minh City now, if you want to eat specialties in the North, go to Base 26 market, Tan Son Nhat market (Go Vap district) or Do Dac market (district 2), Ong Ta market (Tan Binh district), Hoa Hung market ( District 10) … No shortage of things, from sending in from home. Want to have meals “North standard”, go to the market early in the morning, do not forget to visit the shops selling crab, fish, and shrimp to freely choose the freshest products. Silkworm pupae, Northern tofu, North spring rolls, banh chung, vermicelli, dried bamboo shoots, vermicelli, yellow flower sticky rice … all. There are things, if you are not a Northern person, you will be surprised like when you buy chicken, the owner is always “promoted” with lemon leaves. The fresh vegetables, fruits, spices in the North every morning, all of them are very fresh: from wormwood, basil, dill, bone-smoked leaves to vertical fruits, peaches, gac…. The same things, bought in other markets or supermarkets, are available, but from different shapes, colors to flavors. In addition to the seasonal products, special markets in the North in Ho Chi Minh City are indispensable for seasonal specialties. This season is plum, plum. Half a month from now, the market will be filled with goods selling litchi fruits, from howling litchi (early season litchi, sweet and sour fruit) to Luc Ngan thieu litchi (Bac Giang), Hung Yen. When the litchi season is low, it comes to Hung Yen longan. It turns to autumn, around August – October is the season of crocodile, lemon peach. Before that, in March – April, there was no shortage of lilies with pristine white colors. New Year’s day is a bunch of leaves, bunch of leaves followed by the mothers and fathers to go to each kitchen. Phuong Nam is hospitable, always a land where people everywhere come, study, work and set up a career. In this southern land, there is no shortage of “North market”, “Chinese market” with special regional dishes, so that those who are far away from home, choose the city to be the second homeland, always feel warm. heart …

“Oh, really delicious”, Mr. T said, “this one of it is this. Selling price?”. “Very cheap. Not tens of thousands of a bag. This boy also came up from rice paper. Now it has been sold to several provinces. I take you to visit the factory later. See if there is any way for him to export or not.” Mr. D goes straight to the point. This trip was organized by him. The only purpose is just to ask Mr. T to find directions for some local businessmen. I still look out of the car window. And remember my maternal hometown, also a locality in the Central region. Memories of my childhood are rushing back because of the green steps on the road passing through the small window. That day, every summer afternoon, at 3-4pm, an old lady comes in (alley, alley – as called in the Central region) her grandmother sells rice paper. Children dirty from playing soccer and shooting marbles gathered around her selling rice paper. Someone who has money then cheats on his pants and takes out an odd note that is wrapped very carefully. Those who do not have money stand waiting, waiting for him to break a piece of it. And my most impressive point of the foreign country rice paper is the bright red area located in the center of the cake. It is chili sauce. Each piece of cake sold, before handing over, was scooped up a little chili sauce by the old lady with a beautiful little spoon and sprinkled it in the middle. Sun cake, I used to think. It was like a crimson sun, with an open halo of gold. And the kids kept breaking each “piece of sun” and dot the little sun. They are so talented. After three years of age, he can already eat chili. I absolutely do not dare to touch that sun, although my grandmother’s rice and soup is always spicy, as if I train me to get used to it. The way of eating banh mi in the countryside is indeed unique. It is different from the way to eat banh mi in Hanoi, where I grew up. A small street corner, group a beautiful red charcoal oven, and then whoever comes to buy them, they fan the charcoal to bake. Childhood rice cake in Hanoi is purely vegetarian, is it not dipped with spices (or because I did not eat spices that day so I can’t remember)? And the piece of cake baked on charcoal it often has “bubbles” scattered on the cake. In that “explosive bubble” is the air. The little ones often like to play with that explosive foam before eating it. True discovery is an extremely curiosity. It’s just a bubble that explodes, just squeezed it yesterday, and knowing there’s nothing inside, still stimulates the next day to continue exploring in the hope that it will be different. Oh, if only I grew up, people loved each other that way, just discovering each other every day without being bored, the world would never have separated and depressed love songs. Later, growing up and traveling a lot, I began to understand that normal rice cake was just like that, but it turned out to be in many “magnificent” delicacies of Vietnamese cuisine. What are the mussel rice cakes, the sautéed sautéed with chili peppers, the broken rice bread in a bowl of Quang noodles, the rice cake with the classic sautéed shrimp in the West … If you have to vote for a snack best in the world, I do not hesitate to nominate Vietnamese banh mi. Hey, what if we go to a pub in the West and instead of eating their “snacks”, how about we use tabasco dumplings? “Hey, Mr. D, does he make some kind of uncooked rice paper for customers to microwave themselves. I tell the truth, this cake is delicious. I can recommend to Europe, I have some clues over there. But if you pay the cake (container), it will occupy the first area and easily break the cake, lose the aesthetics is Monday “, Mr. T said. Mr. D affirmed “It is not. Because baking in the microwave it will not be as beautiful as this industrial cake, and the cake will not be as flat as this. But I will say it try.” Saying to do, he picked up the phone and called the owner of the production facility, his voice loud and loud. The wheelchair moved onto a newly renovated inter-village asphalt road, then turned into a spacious, spacious house, crowded with people in and out. “Here, its workshop. The owner is on his way from his house”, Mr. D introduced. Soon, a new seven-seat Peugeot slowly entered the courtyard. From the car, the owner of the workshop, a big, strong, black body must be cheerfully down. His hand carried a … microwave oven. “Uncle D just arrived. Just stay at the factory. Because you said the microwave oven, I ran too blood to try it. It’s delicious. You can do it all,” said the owner of the workshop. Then turned to us cheerfully: “Hello, you two. Please come in and play, I can try it immediately”. Say and do. The owner of the workshop led us into the living room, looking for an electrical outlet to place the microwave in the middle of the table while the staff was making tea. Then his hand quickly opened the bag, took the cake, turned on the oven, baked. It is really beautiful. The cake is still flat, the yellow color is still, only different from the industrial baked goods in one point is that the rim is slightly burnt brown. But I like that burnt brown color. It gives the feeling of a slice of cake that is baked with charcoal. Then the story revolves around production capacity, around the current distribution market, around the factory owner tinkering with how to make a rice cake dryer to avoid depending on the sun, rain and weather of drying methods. traditional cake. The talk lasted until they all got in the car, looking for a small riverside restaurant nearby for lunch. Also at the same lunch table, the story reached the “finale” of the intention to export the cake. “Now you can work directly with Mr. T. He promised to do it. He will help you export this cake to Europe”, Mr. D said, “if I have anything else to add, please report this S guy, It is the number one assistant, I do many things for me “. The factory owner’s eyes were filled with hope when he heard Mr. D say that sentence. And Mr. T was also open-minded, when he said that the factory owner should send samples directly to the city to quote prices. HCM for your office. The factory owner was happy to face. His face shone with pride mixed with a belief in something that could change his career. “Geez, that’s fine. If you help me, you can help the people in my commune too. They work for me if I can sell, they also add income. It’s also very tiring, bro. Please give me your address and office phone number “. Mr. T immediately read the address but after half a sentence, I saw him leaning under the table, as if he had dropped something to search. Coming back, he read the address again. But also with three words, he bent under the table again. For the third time, I found he seemed annoyed. Then he said quickly to the owner of the workshop, “Give me your phone number. I’ll text you later. Now have a drink.” On the taxi ride home from Tan Son Nhat, I kept silent, not daring to say anything. But the more silent I became uncomfortable. Remembering the boss’s overly enthusiastic, humble figure, I feel bad. And unable to bear that torment, I quietly asked “Will you help them?”. Being told as if opening his heart, Mr. T opened the phone and showed me the message. Then he said, the other three footsteps belonged to S. It was S himself who told Mr. T after that, when the group got back to the hotel, the idea was “let me worry, she wants you to help export, I have to ask for it. Color for you. There is no “how to”. “You are so mad Minh. You said that I helped people out of work and asked for money. Besides, I am not rich yet, but I want to do big things to do something about this three hundred million. Look at people being hot.” In this situation, I believe you can help people, they do not pay money for me Besides, even if you help me for free, I also help them. They are farmers like my parents. “Mr. T said. No wonder, I texted the owner of the factory the great news “Here is the address. You can contact me directly. I will help you with no penny. You rest assured. But S it says whatever you do, please don’t mind.” “. Turns out, Mr. T is much more awake than I thought. No wonder, on the way back, he definitely didn’t touch a piece of rice cake. Despite S bravely carried two barrels alone from the Central into the city. “If Mr. S brings the sample, I will say it was sent in outside the workshop. Let him understand”, said Mr. T while smiling, “It’s strange, you only like to eat people”. Rich – poor it has numbers. I can help anyone, just help me, right? What is shared with each other is extremely important. Like a piece of cake still shared childhood, there is no regret. People are better than each other in that “generous”, but where are “cunning” than each other in the “cunning” thing …

Lilies are at their most beautiful, with branches up to a meter long, and are preferred by buyers to choose to place jars and jars. Shorter branches, from 50 – 80 cm, single cotton, the price difference is about 50,000 VND / bundle of 100 cotton. Cut flowers at the garden are available in bundles of 100 flowers, 10 boxes / bundle to be transported to the provinces. Lilies garden in Tay Tuu (Hanoi) in the very harvest Each year, lilies (also called lily West, cypress) bloom only once and are considered the symbolic flower for April. This season, people call it short, to distinguish it from Chinese trumpet. National planting year round, off season. Lilies are commented by the growers to be easy to care for and develop evenly, so they do not take the effort to prune. Each branch can give 2-5 flowers. In the flower village of Tay Tuu (Hanoi), lilies have been harvested since the beginning of March, and have now entered the main season. Each 100m2 garden here is expected to harvest about 2,000-3,000 flowers / day. The grower said that the flower season is estimated to last about 2 weeks. Flowers can stay up to 2 weeks, longer than most other fresh flowers. Flowers are priced according to cotton, 3-4 flowers are beautiful, the highest price is 10,000 VND / branch In addition to wholesaling for wholesalers, the lilies are also personally transported by growers to retail at the market, and to sell more on social networks. The average price at the markets is 2,000 VND / cotton, branches 3-4 cotton can be up to 10,000 VND / branch. On the online market, flowers are mainly displayed in bundles of 30-50-100 flowers, delivered to the place. The florists said that this year’s flower price is equivalent or even cheaper than last year’s flower season. Main season, flowers cheap to half compared to early season. Households who ring the tubers early, harvested from February, have better profits, because the early flowers in the season are good. Currently, some households also rent land in neighboring areas such as Ha Mo (Dan Phuong) to plant more lilies. The 3,500 garden of lilies “fever” on social networks On this occasion, flower lovers do not miss the opportunity, constantly sharing flower arrangements, displaying beautiful white blooming vases. In flower-loving associations, white trumpet color dominates many posts, from small and beautiful flower pots to hundred and thousand lilies and gardens all “cut the hearts” of netizens. Famous on social networks with the 200 square meter garden in the middle of the capital, each season, Ms. Tran Dieu Thuy (Ha Dong, Hanoi) wears a new coat for her flower garden. This April, Thuy herself planted 3,500 lilies. In order for the flowers to bloom beautifully, Ms. Thuy said, experience is that after 5 days of arranging, flowers need more nourishment, enough water to bloom. The master garden owner arranges flowers himself, happily welcoming his friends to take pictures every flower season In April flower season, Thuy’s garden is crowded with rafts to take pictures. 2,000 lilies in the garden, are the birthday gifts she received from friends. Thuy’s social media posts made netizens in awe. Not only funding, but the owner of the garden is also dedicated to taking care of the trees, creating a valuable green environment in the noisy city.