VietNamNet Bridge – The name of the coffee shop is “Nam muoi muoi lam” (Five, ten, fifteen), which Vietnamese children in the countryside say out loud in the hide-and-seek game.

A corner of Nam muoi muoi lam café

Upon arrival at this café, guests can swiftly have a flashback of their sweet childhood. Besides its name, the décor of the coffee restaurant makes customers live their childhood again thanks to the sights of the Vietnamese countryside.

Customers can see paddy, garden, fish pond and bamboo trees in the café designed like an old rural house with old-fashioned doors, windows, tables and chairs.

The owner of the café, Nguyen Tuan Kiet, is a fresh graduate from the HCMC University of Architecture. This is also his final project at university. He spent VND700 million (US$31,402) building it.

Customers can feel something old and nostalgic with lyrics of children’s songs printed on back pillows, kites flying by the roof of the house and small birds made from leaves.

There are cupboards in traditional southern style, bamboo baskets, small stacks of straw, flour mill, or a fan made of areca-nut palm spathe.

An old cupboard with clay dishes and bowls inside is seen at the café – Photos: Vi Tuong

The owner said items in the shop were bought from flea markets, collected from the countryside or created by his family in Tien Giang Province in the Mekong Delta.

With nostalgic memories of his hometown in Tien Giang, he designed the café in a way that highlights rural peace and simplicity in a modern and busy city like Saigon. Nam muoi muoi lam came online last year, just four months after his graduation from university.

Student’s notebooks are used to make the menus. Apart from beverages, the restaurant serves plain dishes of the countryside for lunch, such as thit kho tau (pork braised with duck eggs), chicken braised with lemon grass, fish braised in a clay pot, deep fried snakehead fish and amaranth soup.

Nam muoi muoi lam café is located at 29 Ngo Thoi Nhiem Street, District 3, HCMC.

Dieu Thuan

SGT