Nearly 40 years of preserving the taste of Hanoi’s shrimp cakes at Phu Tay Ho

Hoa Nha Restaurant currently has three floors, each floor is about 100 m2, including an outdoor area and air-conditioned room, with a maximum capacity of about 200 guests. On weekdays, the shop sells about 200-300 shrimp cakes, but on holidays and Tet, the number of customers increases sharply, some days reaching 700-800. According to Mrs. Hoa, the shop owner, the name Hoa Nha is a combination of the names of her mother-in-law and sister-in-law. After becoming a daughter-in-law, her mother-in-law taught her how to make shrimp cakes and then took over the business. She also hopes that this profession can continue to be passed on to her daughter-in-law or daughter, even though her three children currently have no intention of continuing the career because they are still young or are pursuing their own jobs.

To keep the cake crispy, the mixed dough is deep-fried in a large oil pan and only added when the oil is hot enough to prevent the cake from absorbing too much oil. A satisfactory cake has a crispy outside crust but the inside is still soft, oil-free, fragrant with flour and has moderate fat. Shrimp is imported from the Long Bien wholesale market early in the morning, with priority given to fresh shrimp with a size of about 60 shrimp/kg. On average, one kilogram of shrimp can make about 30 cakes and the restaurant uses about 10 kilograms of shrimp every day.

According to Ms. Hoa, shrimp used to make cakes must have firm meat, sweet taste and a thin shell so that after frying you can eat the shell, while shrimp that are too large often cause the shell to be hard. After frying, the cake is golden yellow, topped with fresh shrimp and eaten with raw vegetables and sweet and sour dipping sauce. The price for a portion of 10 used at the restaurant is 230,000 VND, while to take away costs 180,000 VND. The owner said the difference comes from take-away customers not using on-site services. In addition to fresh shrimp ingredients, the quality of the cake also depends a lot on the way the dough and dipping sauce are mixed. The dough mixture includes flour, eggs, seed powder – a fermented powder that creates a sour taste, baking powder and turmeric water. The maker must adjust the dough so that it is not too thick or too thin, and at the same time ensure that the mixture is smooth and free of lumps. The dipping sauce is mixed according to a unique recipe with a balance between sour, salty and sweet but still retains its sweetness, helping to reduce the feeling of being sick when eating fried cakes.

Besides shrimp cakes, the restaurant also serves snail vermicelli and many snail dishes such as snails braised with banana and beans, boiled snails eaten with tapioca cake. A bowl of snail noodles costs from 60,000 VND. The shop uses mainly jackfruit snails and stuffed snails purchased from rural areas in Ninh Binh and Thanh Hoa. According to the owner, these two types of snails have meat that is thick, crispy, sweet, fatty, fragrant and less viscous than some other types, so they are suitable for the restaurant’s dishes. Visitors to Hoa Nha are quite diverse, from couples, groups of friends to multi-generational families. Ms. Hoa said that the food business requires staying up late and waking up early, especially on holidays and New Year when eating and resting times are often unstable. However, what makes her stick with her job is that many customers still return to the restaurant after decades. There is a family that has eaten here for four generations, from the mother bringing her daughter to the restaurant, then the daughter continued to bring her children to eat after getting married and the next generation still keeps this habit.

Thao My, a customer who has been eating at the restaurant for about 10 years, said that about twice a month she travels dozens of kilometers from Dong Da ward to come here to eat shrimp cakes or snail vermicelli. What makes her come back is the sweetness of the vermicelli broth and rich shrimp cakes when combined with sweet and sour fish sauce. Hoa Nha Restaurant is open from 7am to 9pm every day, including Tet. Although it has existed for nearly 40 years and has a stable number of regular customers, this address also receives mixed reviews on some travel and culinary forums. Some diners think that the price is relatively high, while the cake at some times is too oily and easily makes you feel sick.