“Black” bread (Vietnamese baguette)

As the name suggests, the bread is as black as a pitch-black night, making it special at first sight. Thành Trung (26 years old) and Minh Nhật (25 years old), both live in Tra On district, Vinh Long province, have invented the famous “black” Vietnamese baguette and are starting their business on 30 Tháng 4 street, Ninh Kieu district.

The bread cart of two young men, which is opposite Cần Thơ City Radio and Television Station, has attracted a large number of people these days. Hundreds of loaves of black bread sold out in just a few hours in the morning. To achieve this great success, Nhật and Trung went to Quang Ninh province after hearing information about this unique type of bread. "For several days we just ate and ate black bread to find out the secret behind this famous type of bread," Nhật said. The baker did teach us a few things, but they were just the basics. The inventor doesn't teach us the recipe so we have to figure it out for ourselves.

Determined to bring the “black” bread to the Mekong Delta region, the two boys spent more than 10 days in the bakery shop to measure flour, sugar, and bamboo charcoal correctly, in order to create the perfect recipe. “To be successful as today, we failed several times and wasted several dozen kilograms of flour to be able to write the best recipe”, Nhật added.

Before being baked, the black bread takes more time to knead the dough than the regular bread... In order to create a distinctive black color for this bread, the main ingredients besides flour are also bamboo charcoal and squid ink powder. However, if you don’t do it properly, the bread dough will become hard and will not rise evenly when being baked.

Now, Nhật and Trung are confident with their recipe and stick to it. It is quite hard for them to sell black bread in Cần Thơ city while their bakery shop is in Trà Ôn district (Vĩnh Long province). However, the 2 boys are happy with their start-up business. Apart from regular black bread, they also sell black bread with meat, vegetables, herbs, and condiments that are quite fancy. Each loaf of regular black bread is sold for 5,000 VND, and the one with meat is priced at 18,000 VND.

According to many customers, the appearance of black bread is really impressive. When eating, the bread is very fragrant, crunchy, pleasing to the sense of taste, and different from traditional bread.

“Tiny” bread (Vietnamese baguette)

As a mini version of regular Vietnamese baguette, the tiny bread of Gia Mỹ bakery, located in the construction section of Tran Hoang Na Street (the section connecting 3 Tháng 2 street to 91B residential area), is loved by many people. Ms. Huỳnh Thụy Thùy Vân, who is the owner of the bakery and a preschool teacher, starts her business with the tiny bread.

Tiny bread has appeared in some bakery shops, but Ms. Thùy Vân has given this type of bread unique colors and flavors. Not only traditional ingredients, but Ms. Vân also uses red dragon fruit or pumpkin to make the tiny bread. That's why the tiny bread looks so unique, eye-catching, and delicious.

Just with the bread as small as a banana, Ms. Vân makes a delicious version of it with meat that attracts a lot of customers. Due to its very small size, Ms. Van sells a combo of 5 loaves of mini bread. Each loaf is a different flavor and filling: quail egg omelet, chả lụa (Vietnamese pork roll), chả giò (crispy spring rolls), chà bông (salted shredded pork), Liver pâté, etc.

According to Ms. Vân, to make mini bread, it is necessary to be meticulous at every step for the dough to rise evenly which will make the bread crunchy and not hard. More important is the enthusiasm and effort of the baker put into each batch. “Bánh mì is a famous Vietnamese delicacy, so I want to add more values to the dish by reforming it. I don't use preservatives when making the dish, instead, I use natural colors from fruit to ensure food safety”, Ms. Vân said. Nguyễn Minh Châu, a young customer, said excitedly: “I like to eat tiny bread because it looks so cute and it is very delicious.” The price for each regular loaf of tiny bread (without is 800 VND, a combo of 5 loaves of tiny bread with meat is 20,000 VND. In addition, there is also sweet tiny bread, which is at the same size as the little finger and very cute.

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A little change from Cần Thơ bakers makes the dish more delicious and further enriches the local cuisine, which contributes to attracting visitors to Can Tho.