Kim Mai’s crispy roasted pork skin with an attractive brown color is a “rare item” in Saigon, making her meat stall always filled with customers waiting in line.

21$/kg pork skin, customers still buy

Roasted pork is a common dish in many big cities, easy to eat, easy to combine with other ingredients, delicious with rice, but also good with vermicelli. It’s so popular that there are shops selling this “national” dish in every local market. But for that reason, it is rare for a row of roasted pork to be so famous that customers have to queue and wait for their turn to be served.

Kim Mai’s roast pork stall (Binh Tien Market, Pham Phu Thu Street, District 6) is one of the “phenomenons” because, after decades of business, the attraction of this restaurant has not decreased, even more, and more and more crowded.

Ms. Mai sells goods for two “sessions”, morning and afternoon, but every time customers come to “crowd and gather red”, the owner cuts meat without stopping. Usually, by about 18:00 – 18:30, Mai will be out of stock.

Initially just a small stall in Binh Tien market, but Kim Mai roast pork shop is quite famous.

Ms. Mai’s roast pork has many varieties from bacon, thigh meat, young ribs, pork leg, hoof, tongue, cheek, pork skin, char siu… to whole roast pork, serving different eating needs. of diners. She revealed that, for 35 years, her rotary kiln still keeps its own recipe and secret, from marinating to heating, so it keeps its quality stable over the years.

The pork here is roasted in the Western style, the meat is soaked in spices, the outside is crispy, the explosion is evenly, the inside is “succulent”, keeping the moisture of the meat, not drying. The price of meat, young ribs, tongue, nose, char siu … from 300 thousand – 320 thousand / kg; dishes with bones such as old ribs, pork head, roasted pork leg… are cheaper, from 170-200 thousand VND/kg.

Deliciously prepared meats

In particular, the dish that makes this roast pork stand more special than many other shops is the crispy roasted pork skin. The pork skin is cut straight, rectangular, wider than an adult’s hand, filtered off all the fat, marinated and then roasted in a separate way.

The finished product has an eye-catching amber color, the pork skin is blistered and crispy, and the crackling sound is like breaking a rice paper. Therefore, even though it costs half a million dong/kg, more expensive than meat, this dish is still very attractive.

Roasted pork skin costs 21$ / kg

Kim Mai revealed: ” Roasting pork is actually not difficult, the difficulty is in how to season the seasoning to fit the mouth, adjusting the recipe so that each piece of meat (which has different sizes, time, cooking temperature, texture) achieve the best taste, customer’s mouth. The pork skin must also have a way to keep the skin crispy for a long time without becoming hard, and the meat does not lose its softness .

35 years of practicing “fire gong”, forging “knife” with the profession of turning pigs

Mai’s shop also sells roasted pork bread, priced at 15 thousand / per regular loaf, 2$ / per special loaf. The sauce for the bread is made from the gravy oozing out, being re-seasoned and seasoned to taste.

Usually, with loaves of bread stuffed with chopped roasted pork, many vendors take advantage of the “scarred ends”, at the edges of large chunks of meat to make fillings. But as for Mai, who is very “playable”, she still takes the same piece of meat as the meat that customers buy to eat.

That’s how she “pampers” every customer who comes to her restaurant, she explained, and everyone is served the best meat, whether they come early or late, buy a little or a lot.

Another part, she has a “sword knife” that is quite beneficial. If marinating, soup, cooking (which gourmets often call “fire fire”) makes this roast meat shop in Binh Tien market hold back regular customers, Mai’s “knife” will make strangers excited. .

From the stage of mixing each large piece of meat for roasting, especially bacon, she chose square blocks, so when she cut it up and sold it to customers, there was almost no “excess”. After 35 years of cutting meat, she is also very good at cutting meat, “bouncing numbers” very quickly when customers buy goods, shouting 5$ or 200 grams is also cut at the right time, rarely surplus or shortage.

Looking at the way she cuts meat, even the bones like pork cheeks, many people have to admire her because she seems to be “dancing” with a knife and cutting board. The steady sound, always the hands of the chopping board touching each other with the street sounds create very lifelike music, right at the roast pork counter.

Mai has been selling roast pork since she was 15 years old. In 1987, she started the profession of roasting meat, which she considers difficult but very “addicted”. “ Actually, this roast pork business belongs to my sister, but she (she – PV) didn’t have the guts to sell it, so I followed. Ten years, she lived at Pham Phu Thu market, then moved to Binh Tien market, then opened more shops, and lived well with her job. It’s been the best seller for about 20 years now, not only customers around District 6, but also customers far away from Thu Duc, District 12, District 7, Binh Duong also come to buy, very happy! “, she excitedly boasted.

Customers come to Mai’s shop partly because people are “addicted” to the skillful way of cutting meat.

Thanks to the “fire gong” and “knife” training for 35 years, from a small stall in Binh Tien market selling more than ten kilograms each session, Ms. Kim Mai has built 3 establishments, 2 stores in the district. 6 and 1 store in District 11, plus online sales. The amount of finished roast meat sold per day is up to hundreds of kilograms.

However, she is still the one who takes care of the rotary kiln, “stashes” at the main store in Binh Tien market and lets her son and daughter take over the branches, not “retire”. She explained, ” Because selling food can’t make me lazy, I have to roll my hands, have to keep the quality, not only, the customers leave me immediately! “.

(Photo: Kim Mai Roasted Pork – Binh Tien Market, District 6)