Ngan Huynh
Professor Maltman
ENGC 1101–09
10 May 2017
Ethnography Essay “Ai mua banh beo hong?” (Who wants to eat banh beo?)
Street vending is the must try experience visitors should have when they come to Vietnam. Imagine every morning when you wake up, somebody reaches your home and sells everything you need to cook for today. The long existence of street vending proves that Vietnamese people are really open to old culture while adapting new shifting in their culture. Although the modernization of society has impacted on the activities of street vendors, Vietnam will lose its culture without street vendors.
Street vendors have existed for hundreds of years in Saigon – Dong Duong. In the 1880s, when the French colonized Indochina, the city …show more content…
Their customers are mainly migrant workers, blue-collar workers, and students, by providing products at a reasonable price, they significantly contribute to the local economy. From a tourism perspective, street vendors can help with advertising the food culture of Vietnam. The street traders also add vibrancy of urban life and in many places considered as the cornerstone of historical and cultural …show more content…
When the clock notices seven, there would be a vendor who sells banh beo and banh loc, which are two types of cake made from corn flour mixed with ground mung bean. She would cry “Ai mua banh beo banh loc hon?” (Is there anybody wants to eat banh beo and banh loc?). And if anyone does, they can bring her their own plate and she would place the cake on the plate. It is repeated every day, and somehow becomes a habit in my daily lives. The appearance of the vendor brings joy to every alley she walks through. Until one day, she no longer reaches my grandmother’s house. I do not know where she has gone, but her basket, which is always full of many kinds of cake, still stays in my memory. While in the afternoon, the children usually gather to play games and wait for the ice-cream vendor. Ice cream is cooled by ice cubes surrounded it, and close to the barrel, there is a thin foam to keep ice stay frozen. He will "moi goi" (attract) us with a small bell, and whenever I hear the sound of the bell, I will ask my mom to give me “2 ngan” (1 cent) to buy the ice cream. I also remember on the way back to home after a day trip from CanTho, a province in the West of Vietnam, many street vendors carrying their goods such as bread, corn, and nuts knock our car’s windows and ask us to buy their stuff, while we are waiting at the ferry
Professor Maltman
ENGC 1101–09
10 May 2017
Ethnography Essay “Ai mua banh beo hong?” (Who wants to eat banh beo?)
Street vending is the must try experience visitors should have when they come to Vietnam. Imagine every morning when you wake up, somebody reaches your home and sells everything you need to cook for today. The long existence of street vending proves that Vietnamese people are really open to old culture while adapting new shifting in their culture. Although the modernization of society has impacted on the activities of street vendors, Vietnam will lose its culture without street vendors.
Street vendors have existed for hundreds of years in Saigon – Dong Duong. In the 1880s, when the French colonized Indochina, the city …show more content…
Their customers are mainly migrant workers, blue-collar workers, and students, by providing products at a reasonable price, they significantly contribute to the local economy. From a tourism perspective, street vendors can help with advertising the food culture of Vietnam. The street traders also add vibrancy of urban life and in many places considered as the cornerstone of historical and cultural …show more content…
When the clock notices seven, there would be a vendor who sells banh beo and banh loc, which are two types of cake made from corn flour mixed with ground mung bean. She would cry “Ai mua banh beo banh loc hon?” (Is there anybody wants to eat banh beo and banh loc?). And if anyone does, they can bring her their own plate and she would place the cake on the plate. It is repeated every day, and somehow becomes a habit in my daily lives. The appearance of the vendor brings joy to every alley she walks through. Until one day, she no longer reaches my grandmother’s house. I do not know where she has gone, but her basket, which is always full of many kinds of cake, still stays in my memory. While in the afternoon, the children usually gather to play games and wait for the ice-cream vendor. Ice cream is cooled by ice cubes surrounded it, and close to the barrel, there is a thin foam to keep ice stay frozen. He will "moi goi" (attract) us with a small bell, and whenever I hear the sound of the bell, I will ask my mom to give me “2 ngan” (1 cent) to buy the ice cream. I also remember on the way back to home after a day trip from CanTho, a province in the West of Vietnam, many street vendors carrying their goods such as bread, corn, and nuts knock our car’s windows and ask us to buy their stuff, while we are waiting at the ferry