Tucked in alley 62/1 on Ngo Tat To Street in Binh Thanh District, HCM City, the signboard of her namesake shop, Hong Thuy, features a snakehead fish noodle soup. Beside her "snakehead fish queen" title is a photo of the owner, 47, with chef Yan.

Once a makeup artist, Thuy became a homemaker after marriage. Passionate about cooking, she often experimented with dishes based on her tastes and ideas. Later, she and her husband opened a small rice eatery, but it stayed quiet, drawing little attention.

"Once, I cooked fish noodle soup for family feedback, using a lot of fish. Fearing leftovers, I sold it at VND12,000 in front of my house. Surprisingly, passersby stopped to eat and praised it. The next day, I cooked again, tweaking based on customers’ suggestions, and kept selling.

“Gradually, crowds grew. From rice, I switched to fish noodle soup. Business stabilized, bringing good income."

After two years, with her unique recipe, her snakehead fish soup became better known. Locals as well as foreign tourists sought it out.

In the third year, Martin Yan’s assistant visited, saying the chef would come but Thuy and her husband thought it was a joke. Yet, at 7am the next day, a crew set up cameras inside and out. 

By 9 am, Martin Yan arrived, warmly greeting and chatting with them. He joined Thuy in the kitchen, preparing snakehead fish, kneading dough, cutting noodles, and cooking broth. They then served customers together.

"He ate a whole bowl of my noodle soup and kept praising it. He promised to return to Vietnam and visit my stall again. That day, crowds flocked to snap photos with Martin Yan, making the place so lively there was no room to move," Thuy recalled.

His visit boosted the stall’s fame, drawing endless customers. Back then, Thuy earned tens of millions of dong daily from fish noodle soup.

Her dish boasts a sweet, refreshing taste from fresh snakehead fish. The noodles are chewy, not mushy, fragrant with flour, while the fish is tender and rich in flavor. Whether eaten hot or cold, cooked or rare, the fish never smells fishy.

To achieve this, Thuy uses a secret family recipe for a dipping sauce she won’t reveal, insisting it’s 100 percent based on fresh Vietnamese herbs, roots and fruits, unmatched elsewhere. Beyond that, she innovates with dishes like black noodle soup and snakehead fish stewed with medicinal herbs, both of which are tasty and nourishing.

Ha Nguyen